No one on holiday in Alonissos can fail to note the crystal clean waters that surround this, one of the less visited of the Greek holiday islands in the Sporades group. The clear water is, in part at least, a result of Alonissos being the centre of a National Marine Park, the first to be founded in Greece. An excellent guide to the marine park can be found on the Albedo Travel site with details of Alonissos geology, climate and wildlife.

Greeks care little for the fate of endangered dolphins and seals in the Mediterranean, claim wildlife and ecology experts. Despite the marine mammals being vital to the ecology of the Mediterranean, many are routinely killed by becoming entangled in fishing nets. There is evidence that some are deliberately killed by fishermen to protect fish stocks.

A Mediterranean monk seal pup (monachus monachus)is currently being cared for at a seal rehabilitation centre on the Greek island of Alonissos. Conservationists rescued the two-month-old monk seal, one of only about 600 of the creatures that remain in the wild. A research team based on the Greek holiday island spotted the pup in February while watching a seal colony in the south-western Aegean Sea.