Fishers and divers join forces to cleanup the island of Odysseus

A big, international marine protection endeavor on the island of Ithaca, in
Greece, is announced for Earth Day (April 22nd).

2021 is known throughout Ithaca as the year of “The Cleanup”! The
organisations responsible for removing 76 tons of marine litter

from the island’s seas and beaches last year, return in 2022 to create an
even greater impact on the local community and environment.

Between March and June, Healthy Seas and
Enaleia with its Mediterranean CleanUp project
are spearheading “Fishing for Litter”. During the kickoff phase, 2 local
fishers have been mobilized to limit their regular activity and instead
collect marine plastic from remote coastlines, helping the breeding and
reproduction of fish.

At the end of May, volunteer technical divers from the Ghost Diving
organisation will travel to Ithaca to recover
ghost nets and other marine litter from several locations throughout the
island. A cleanup of the Vathy harbour will be carried out with the
involvement of the locals, giving the community a chance to witness the
volunteers in action!

A significant part of the marine litter will be recycled while the nylon
fishing nets will be handed to Aquafil to be
transformed, together with other nylon waste, into ECONYL
regenerated nylon, the basis for new sustainable
products such as socks, activewear, swimwear, carpets, and more. Hyundai
Motor Europe is the main supporter of the project. Other key partners
include Odyssey Outdoor Activities , the
Municipality of Ithaca, the Hellenic Coast Guard. The project is held under
the Auspice of the Hellenic Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the Hellenic
Ministry of Environment & Energy.

It is estimated that 640,000 tons of fishing gear is lost or abandoned in
the seas and oceans each year. It is plastic waste that does not
biodegrade, remaining hundreds of years in the environment, all the while
losing tiny particles called microplastics that end up in the food chain.
The phenomenon takes the name “ghost fishing” because the nets appear
almost invisible underwater trapping and killing all species of marine
animals including turtles, fish, mammals and birds that get entangled,
suffer and eventually die.

The mission of Healthy Seas is to remove waste from the seas, in particular
fishing nets, for the purpose of creating healthier seas and recycling
marine litter into textile products. The recovered fishing nets will be
transformed and regenerated by Aquafil into ECONYL yarn, a high-quality
raw material used to create new products, such as socks, swimwear,
sportswear or carpets. Since its founding in 2013, Healthy Seas has
collected over 773 tons of fishing nets and other marine litter with the
help of volunteer divers and fishers.

*About Enaleia*

Enaleia is a social, non-profit organization with a vision to make the
marine ecosystem sustainable through circular and social economy solutions.
It started as the first school for professional fisheries in Greece and is
now dedicated to research, education, and mega marine plastic clean-up
projects, from the "Mediterranean CleanUp" in the Mediterranean Sea to the
"Bahari Safi" in the Indian Ocean. For our exceptional work, the Co-founder
and Director of Enaleia Lefteris Arapakis has been awarded by the United
Nations Environment Program as "Young Champion of the Earth" 2020 and as

*About Ghost Diving*

Ghost Diving is an international non-profit organization of volunteer
technical divers specialized in the removal of lost fishing gear and other
marine debris since 2009.
To this day, the Ghost Diving team has carried out diving projects
independently or in collaboration with several international environmental
and/or diving organizations like: Healthy Seas Foundation, Greenpeace, WWF,
Global Ghost Gear Initiative and Global Underwater Explorers.

Share this article: