A recent illegal fishing incident in the Eastern Aegean involved seven Turkish trawlers operating deep within Greek waters between Agathonisi and Farmakonisi.
Video evidence showed the trawlers using destructive seabed equipment, reportedly devastating local fish habitats. Reports indicate that three Turkish Coast Guard vessels accompanied the trawlers, seemingly ignoring the illicit activity. Greek fishing boats initially detected the incursion via radar, but the Turkish fleet had withdrawn before Greek patrols could intercept them.
Turkish fishing boats edging dangerously close to Greece’s shores have reignited tensions in the Aegean Sea, as Turkish fishermen are seen operating near islands such as Agathonisi.
Greece protests illegal fishing in Eastern Aegean
In August, Athens lodged a formal protest with Ankara, saying that some of the trawlers, including large industrial vessels, often slip into Greek territorial waters in what local fishermen call a “hide-and-seek” game with the Greek Coast Guard.
“This issue has become a pressing concern for our island communities,” Greece’s Minister of Shipping Vassilis Kikilias said at the time. “There is a continuous effort to regulate the issues that concern us, but in any case, respect for sovereignty is essential,” Kikilias added.
For local fishermen of Greece, the presence of Turkish fishermen in their waters is more than a diplomatic matter—it is a direct challenge to their livelihoods. “When they see the Coast Guard deployed elsewhere, they move deep into Greek waters and sweep the seabed,” one fisherman from the northern Dodecanese told reporters. These incursions, he explained, often occur during periods when bottom trawling is explicitly banned to protect fish stocks for future generations.
Reports from marine conservation organizations indicate continuous incidents of Turkish trawlers illegally fishing in Greek waters, sometimes just meters from islands like Leros, Samos, Agathonisi, and Patmos. These reports frequently highlight the use of destructive bottom trawling and the apparent lack of interception by Greek authorities in some cases.
