ACG 150

A team of 11 ACG students, accompanied by their professor Dr. Stella Apostolaki and lab technician Maria Koutsokali, visited Lesvos as part of field activities linked to the Lesvos Mission Blue Project (LMBP) on May 14-20, 2023. During their stay, they explored and made a first attempt at mapping the biodiversity of the island, namely environmental and ecosystem services mapping, coastal plant identification, geological exploration, birdwatching, and testing underwater equipment for the monitoring of fish populations. In addition, they established contacts and collaboration with the Department of Oceanography and Marine Research, University of the Aegean, regarding the future steps of the LMBP, and they collaborated closely with Ms. Eleni Atsikbasis, founder of the organization Healing Lesvos and of the LMBP. Through this contact, ACG students interacted on coastal monitoring activities with students of the Lyceum of Petra, where they also organized an educational activity on the SDGs with an emphasis on the most relevant to the project. Finally, they linked social and humanitarian issues with the ecosystems of the island by exploring the migration pathways that bring birds and humans to the island of Lesvos.

As part of the ACG partnership with Healing Lesvos, a group of high school students from the New Village School in California was introduced to the Lesvos Mission Blue Project and were hosted by the ACG on May 5, when they explored the context and relevance of the SDGs to our everyday life and the LMBP in particular. The American students left with the best impressions of Lesvos island, the project and ACG.