Off the Greek island of Alonissos, volunteer divers are working to clean up the seabed in Europe’s largest protected marine park.
Decaying plastic bottles, a discarded tyre, and rusted anchor chains are just some of the items they have pulled from the turquoise waters.
This cleanup effort, funded by the EU, aims to protect the diverse marine life that calls this sanctuary home.
The waters around Alonissos, a popular tourist destination in the eastern Aegean Sea, are part of a marine park established in the early 1990s.
This park provides a crucial habitat for a variety of species, including one of the world’s last remaining colonies of the endangered Monk seal, more than 300 fish species, dolphins, and sea turtles.
However, the park, like much of the Mediterranean Sea, faces a significant threat from pollution, with tens of thousands of tons of waste entering its waters annually.
Theodora Francis, 31, a volunteer diver participating in the two-day cleanup, noted that the park’s existence has raised awareness among both locals and tourists about the dangers of marine pollution. The recovered items represent just a small fraction of the debris impacting the delicate ecosystem.
“We visited five, four areas to check whether we find rubbish in those areas,” Francis, 31, said. “In most of those areas we didn’t… but in some areas we did.” She said the main port of Votsi, where most tourism and fishing occurs, was the site of most litter.
To protect its coastal biodiversity, Greece has promised to create another two marine parks in the Aegean and the Ionian Sea in the west, part of 21 initiatives worth 780 million euros ($887.5 million).
It has legislated the expansion of marine protected areas to 30% of its territorial waters by 2030, and has submitted plans to the EU setting out how it will organise fishing, tourism and offshore energy.
“People all over the globe should know that we have the strength to change everything. We really believe in the individual responsibility of people, we invest in this,” said George Sarelakos, 46, president of the Greece-based agency which organised the cleanup, Aegean Rebreath.
For Francis, Alonissos can be a model for the protection of the seas.
“If every island had the same interest in taking care of their environment, we would have the Alonissos situation in many more islands.”
