Abeille Marengo sails for cable survey despite NAVTEX

The French research vessel Abeille Marengo left Heraklion, Crete on November 7, 2026 and headed south to begin seabed surveys for a planned cable connecting Greece, Cyprus and Israel. Turkey had issued a NAVTEX notice claiming the survey area and sent a UAV to monitor the departure. Greece proceeded anyway.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the same day that dialogue had resolved the matter, calling it a misunderstanding. Greek officials made no public comment on the Turkish UAV flight.

The survey sits at the centre of a broader argument over who controls the Eastern Mediterranean seabed. Greece and Turkey both dispute the other's right to license infrastructure in overlapping claim areas. That dispute reached a formal level last week when Greece, Cyprus and Israel jointly rejected Turkey's maritime agreement with Libya at a summit in Athens.

The Abeille Marengo's work covers the route of a subsea power and data link. No incidents were reported during the departure.