The Sepia project, which was born in 2016 in L'Estartit (Girona) with the aim of recovering this species and the squid by saving the eggs that were trapped in the gear of artisanal fishermen, is now disembarking in schools and institutes in the regions Girona. The educational project 'Educasepia. We take care of the sea and the fishermen from the plate' has developed proposals adapted to the different educational levels in order to encourage a change in consumption habits in the youngest.
"The idea is that they themselves order local fish at home," explained one of the promoters of the project, Boris Weitzmann. To achieve this, they have joined forces with the fishermen themselves, the Gisfera cooperative and the GALP Costa Brava.
After working with fishermen to rescue cuttlefish and squid eggs that were trapped in artisanal fishing nets and developing incubators to grow them and return them to the sea, now the Cuttlefish project is taking a "leap" towards environmental education.
Thus, 'Educasèpia' was born, an educational project designed for schools and institutes in the Girona regions so that the youngest can learn about fishing, responsible consumption and the environment.
The objective, as Weitzmann has detailed, is to cause "a change in consumption habits": "For children to change the way they relate to the sea and fish products. The idea is that boys and girls, when they go to home, ask themselves to consume local products, that they learn to eat fish and that it be fish from here".
To this end, they have designed content adapted to the needs of each course so that, through play, materials and reflection, they become environmentally aware, provoking, in the longer term, responsible consumption and sensitivity to the marine environment. Weitzmann has specified that they have worked on all the contents side by side with the Estartit fishermen's brotherhood: "The first question was to know what the artisanal fishermen want us to tell the children, and from there we have stretched the thread to see how to do it ".
This has been done in collaboration with the Gisfera cooperative and the Empesca't project. Marcell Gutinell, from Gisfera, has stated that, for example, for younger children they mainly propose games to establish contact with the sea and fishing.
For the middle cycle they focus on the natural environment and for upper and secondary they have designed escape games in which students must manage to save the oceans. For Baccalaureate they also involve networks and propose an approach more from the social field.
The idea now is to propose the contents in schools and institutes so that groups begin to sign up from the course that begins now.
To design the contents, they have obtained a European grant of about 20,000 euros articulated in the GALP Costa Brava.
