Thursday, October 10, 2019 was a very special day. In the Portoroz Auditorium, the official ceremony for the anniversary of Marine Biology Station Piran (MBS), which operates within the National Institute of Biology (NIB), was held. This year, the only Slovenian institution that studies the sea and monitors its quality is celebrating its 50th birthday! 50 years of continuous research, which has helped us understand the Slovenian sea, its inhabitants, visible and invisible ones, and many processes in this--globally--almost insignificant puddle. However, this sea, with only 213 km2 of surface area and an average depth of some 19 m, which never, not even in its deepest spot, exceeds 40 m, is large in content and extremely biodiverse. One might have expected the presence of several high-ranking statesmen, but more disappointing was the unexpected absence of invited mayors of two of the four coastal municipalities.