Remains of sanitary napkins, industrial packaging, food and cosmetic containers, shopping bags... These are some of the residues that fishermen find on the Catalan coast every day when they collect their nets. Fortunately for everyone, since 2015 a large number of fishermen have turned the unpleasant discovery of garbage in their nets into an activity in defense of the quality of the seas and the environment in general. They meticulously and altruistically collect this rubbish (garbage in nature) and make it possible to catalog it (for scientific studies on the problem) and proper management (recycled where possible).
This waste fishing activity makes up the Upcycling The Oceans project, by Ecoembes and the Ecoalf Foundation, and in 2022 managed to remove a total of 94,995 kilos of waste from the seabed of Catalonia, according to data from the annual balance presented on Tuesday 17 April in a ceremony held in Barcelona.
In 2022, the project counted on the collaboration of 963 Catalan fishermen from 229 boats based in 16 ports: Llançà, Port de la Selva, Roses, Palamós, Blanes, Arenys de Mar, Badalona, Barcelona, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Tarragona, Cambrils, L'Ametlla de Mar, L'Ampolla, Deltebre, Sant Carles de la Rápita and Les Cases D'Alcanar. The initiative has the support of the Waste Agency of Catalonia, Ports of the Generalitat, the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda and the Catalan National Federation of Fishermen's Guilds.
In the presentation of the results, Nieves Rey, Director of Communication and Marketing at Ecoembes, highlighted the role played by fishermen and the importance of more people committing to keeping marine ecosystems free of garbage. “The fishermen are the main protagonists of this project, since they are the ones who, through altruistic work, are in charge of collecting the waste that falls into their nets every day and transporting it in their boats so that, once they arrive at the port, they deposit it. in the corresponding containers so that they can be recycled and thus give them a second life”, recalled Nieves Rey.
For her part, Andrea Ruzo, general director of the Ecoalf Foundation, pointed out that "marine litter is a global problem, and Upcycling the Oceans is demonstrating how all of society should collaborate in cleaning the oceans". "To the essential work that fishermen carry out ensuring the recycling of waste that otherwise would remain at the bottom of the sea forever, it is necessary to add citizen participation. Among all of us we have the ability to stop dirtying the seas," said Andrea Ruzo.
Regarding the involvement of Catalan fishermen in the project, Toni Abad, president of the Catalan National Federation of Fishermen's Confraternities (FNCCP), pointed out that: “we still find large amounts of marine litter when we carry out our activity. This is a worrying situation that forces us to continue promoting initiatives like these, which in an ideal scenario should not exist. What all fishermen want is to find our seas and oceans free of garbage and preserve marine biodiversity”.
The Upcycling the Oceans activity achieved the collection of 189,844 kilos of waste in Spain in 2022. For this, it has had the collaboration of nearly 2,600 fishermen from more than 600 fishing boats, mainly trawlers, located in 43 fishing ports of Galicia, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Andalusia and the Region of Murcia.
One of the values of Upcycling The Oceans is obtaining information through the study of the garbage recovered from the sea to enrich the knowledge that exists about this problem and contribute to the search for solutions. Thus, garbage is analyzed through the MARNOBA Platform of the Vertidos Cero Association, which collects, stores and transfers information on marine garbage from the coasts and seas of Spain.
Continuing to analyze and acquire knowledge about marine litter with the collaboration of platforms such as MARNOBA, with fishermen and sectors such as trawling will be essential for the care and protection of the marine ecosystem. For this reason, by 2023, Upcycling the Oceans will continue to involve more people and train more fishermen in Catalonia to give a second life to the garbage collected from the seabed.
