Let's Do It! Cleanup Campaign Dives Into the Sea With New Mediterranean Project
19. Oct 2012
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There has already been talk of the “Let's Do It World” cleanup actions, which got their start with a community cleanup event in Estonia, moving from the land to the water. Now it has been confirmed that a new initiative is looking to clean up the beautiful Mediterranean sea and unite all the surrounding countries in the effort. “Let's Do It! Mediterranean is the first regional cleanup event of the Let’s Do It World campaign that aims to clean the surface, shallow sea bottom and shores of the entire Mediterranean Sea,” explained team leader Helene Urva, a marine biologist from Estonia. “If everything goes according to plan, the cleanup will take place in the middle of September 2013.”
The premiere sea cleanup event is being organised by the Let’s Do It World teams in the Mediterranean area as well as scientists and marine science enthusiasts from around the world. The team is still searching for other members to help make this huge undertaking a success.
“We found that there are already loads of initiatives around the Mediterranean Sea that are doing awareness campaigns or beach cleanups or fishing for litter, but they are just not connected enough to give the idea as a whole (the idea of a clean Mediterranean Sea) a lasting impact. So far I have not met anyone anyone who dislikes the idea,” says Urva. “I suppose in a way it is a collective initiative and it resonates well with the aim of having at least a million people participating in a massive cleanup campaign to get all the reachable macroscopic garbage out of the Mediterranean Sea,” she added.
“No one has actually mapped macroscopic plastic floating on the sea or other waste in the shallow bottoms of coastal area,” Urva stated. “Of course it is a tricky thing – how do you map moving waste? It’s also clear that the environmental situation in different areas of the Mediterranean Sea can differ quite a bit. It comes down to currents, salinity, temperature, and shape of the coastal line and characters of the seabed.”
“Nobody knows how much garbage is in the Mediterranean Sea, but I do know there is loads of it still coming in through bad garbage disposal practices and active tourism. And I also know that our science team is working hard to find out all that we can to make this cleanup event more useful,” Helene Urva asserted. The cleanup action will employ three main strategies: nets for boats to clean the surface of the water; divers cleaning the bottom of the sea; and people that go to beaches to clean the coastline, including remote beaches. Countries in the region that have signed up to be active participants are Lebanon, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Cyprus, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey, but contacts have also been made in other countries. To find out more, visit http://www.letsdoitworld.org/news/lets-do-it-dives-waters-lets-do-it-mediterranean-action.
