On Saturday, August 8, we headed to Mul early to do an underwater cleaning action. We had good support from the mainland, a few divers in the sea, a few snorkels and a hard-working team that collected a considerable amount of small light plastic floating on the surface with nets. The action of cleaning the seabed of the port of Mul on Silba brought us too many ugly shots – sea urchins with plastic on them, floating pieces of bags on the surface, tires discarded on the seabed, and much more that we tried to clean as much as possible.
However, there was also some marine litter related to fishing and mariculture – one of them a net – and a surprise on the net! Lots of cuttlefish eggs – little black teardrop-shaped balls!
Luckily we were just setting up our #tankexperiment and we had free space to house the little eggs not knowing if they had a chance of surviving such stress at all, if it passes, it passes!
Fortunately, it passed and the baby cuttlefish decided to honor us with their birth after a few days.
There are ten of them now and we’ll take care of them for a while longer before we release them into the sea!
Once again, this beautiful incident shows us that cleaning actions are not easy to carry out, and it is not enough to be “just a diver”, you must be able to assess how much benefit or damage an object creates in that sea, at all times. When removing something that represents someone’s home, to do it in such a way that sea creatures are as little affected by the process as possible.
On a Saturday summer evening, we prepared a night photo exhibition “Light and Darkness on the Sea Route”, now traditionally for the third time on Silba. We have completed the exhibition with new photos and new educational stories. We encouraged visitors to think about their waste habits and the amount of plastic they create. We have also linked all the threats posed by waste to other attractive other biological and environmental issues – protection, conservation and marine protected areas. The pleasant suggestive atmosphere of the park near the school on Silba always completes this exhibition. We thank all the visitors for coming and respecting the epidemiological measures on keeping distance in the open and see you next year!
Thanks to all members and volunteers!
The activities of this program are part of the Society’s 20,000 Leagues initiative “TOGETHER AGAINST MARINE LITTER” and the project “Clean ports, clean sea!” Society 20,000 Leagues whose implementation is co-financed by the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund and HEP. Let’s protect the environment together – co-financed by the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund.
The content of this program is the sole responsibility of the Company 20,000 leagues and under no circumstances can it be considered as a reflection of the position of the EPEEF and HEP.
The project partners are the Mavena Association with the Silba Environment Art organization, the SOL Association from Olib and the Ist Youth Association and BIUS.
Marine Explorers Society 20.000 leagues gathers ambitious, comprehensive and creative researchers whose primary interest is marine biology. Members of the Society have wide and professional experience in organizing and carrying out various projects.
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