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As a member of the volunteer Group of Zakynthos the campaing we started to join in on some time ago “NO PLASTIC PLEASE” seems to be going viral, at least within the volunteer groups around Greece. Zakynthos was among those places to start this year’s campaign and what better place to start than the famous beach area of Laganas Bay, the nesting place of the endangered sea turtles “Carretta Carretta” as we call them, otherwise known as the loggerhead sea turtle.
Today was the last day of Volunteer work, on the two main beaches of Zakynthos by The Volunteer Group of Zakynthos, iSea and the Zakynthian Marine Park. The teams started yesterday at 10.00 am in Lagana and continued their actions today at Kalamaki beach. Kalamaki’s action had the local Culural committee of “Mousses” join in on today’s event and it was certainly encouraging to see that people around the area are becoming aware of activities such as today’s. The aim was to collect as much rubbish from our beaches and also have the iSea team register how much rubbish there was actually on our beaches and of course what type of rubbish that is causing the problems. The iSea team is an experienced group of researches and conservationists who dedicate themselves in protecting the marine ecosystem. The programme was implemented under the programme of the “Prosfero” from the supermarket chain AB Vasilopoulos and another well known company “Procter & Gamble, which are assisting the beach clean ups all over Greece.
The Marine Park of Zakynthos is also very active on our beaches within the bay of Lagana. Daily they clean up the beaches and inform visitors about protecting and maintaining the beach, so that all can enjoy our waters. An important note from the staff is that they are concerned about the amount of plastic people bring down to the beach and have asked that those visiting the beaches to take their rubbish with them when they leave. They also provide ecological bags for those to put rubbish in and can be handed in at the kiosk that are placed along the beach front, just look for the little green huts for more information, the staff will only be too willing to help with any queries you may have. As well as giving information on beach clean ups they also provide valuable information about our annual visitor the “Carretta Caretta” an endagered sea species, it is very important that these type of actions along our coasts take place and we urge people to take part either joining the Marine Park team or just doing your bit where and when you can.
Over the last few days they amount that was collected was well over 200kg of rubbish, the main culprit being plastic straws and cups, let’s hope with these type of actions by volunteer groups that awareness is spread to help fight the problem and that our beaches remain one the most beautiful in the world.
The iSea team’s next event will be a three day event at our neighbouring Island Kephalonia, Zakynthos Informer and the Volunteer Group of Zakynthos wish them well in their efforts.
A video with one of the iSea team members Nikos Doumpas, from Thessaoniki explains:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2FjzZeW9D8
photos from the 2day event:-
A special thanks to the Kalamaki beach tourist shop for offering the volunteers something cool to drink after.. Volunteers behind the scenes. 😉
More information can be found on the below links:-
http://www.nmp-zak.org/en (The Marine Park of Zakynthos)
https://isea.com.gr/?lang=en (iSea)
https://www.ab.gr/P&G-prosfero (AB Vasilopoulos programme)
A video from the staff at the Marine Park as to what they do, in Greek is available on the below link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXfXrF7fCjw
