Qualla: Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research: Introduction

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Athens_Metro_Piraeus_station.jpg: Badseed derivative work: kaʁstn Disk/Cat, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1912, the Greek government asked a professor in Rome — Decio Vinciguerra, director of the Ichthyological Station — how to build a marine research institute. With his advice, the Marine Hydrobiological Station opened in 1914 near Athens. More than a century of mergers, renamings, expansions, and wars later, that small beginning has grown into the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research: three research vessels, a crewed submersible, multiple Remotely Operated Vehicles, and a network of laboratories and aquaria stretching from the Attic coast to Crete and Rhodes.

Image: Athens_Metro_Piraeus_station.jpg: Badseed derivative work: kaʁstn Disk/Cat | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research: A Century of Becoming

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Montereypine, CC BY-SA 4.0. The institution arrived in its current form through a long sequence of transformations. The original Marine Hydrobiological Station, established in 1914 in Palaio Faliro near Athens, came under the Ministry of Agriculture in 1948 and was renamed the Laboratory of Fisheries Studie...

Image: Montereypine | CC BY-SA 4.0

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research: Below the Surface: The Fleet

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.Savin, CC BY-SA 3.0. The HCMR operates three research vessels and a suite of underwater tools that extend its reach far below what any ship can see from the surface. Its crewed submersible, THETIS, cost €2,069,000 and is deployed from the research vessel AEGAEO. THETIS carries two robotic arms capabl...

Image: A.Savin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research: The Largest Tank Farm in the Mediterranean

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Montereypine, CC0. On the Attic coast at Anavyssos, the HCMR operates HCMR-Aqualabs-Cages — a facility it describes as the largest of its kind for marine experimental tanks in the Mediterranean. The infrastructure combines inland tank installations, net-pen cages in the sea, and analytical laborato...

Image: Montereypine | CC0

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research: Public Faces: Aquaria and a Whale

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lourakis, CC BY-SA 3.0. The HCMR has two public-facing institutions that bring its science to general audiences. Cretaquarium, located in Gournes near Heraklion, is the largest public aquarium in Greece: 61 tanks holding a combined 1,800,000 litres of seawater. Beyond displaying marine life, Cretaquariu...

Image: Lourakis | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research: Publishing the Sea

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dimorsitanos, CC BY-SA 4.0. The HCMR publishes its scientific output through several channels, including the peer-reviewed journal Mediterranean Marine Science, issued three times annually and covering aquatic science, oceanography, environmental engineering, ecology, evolution, behaviour, and systematics. ...

Image: Dimorsitanos | CC BY-SA 4.0