Much sought after tourist destination, especially by the beautiful green-green waters, the Greek island of Alónissos hides many waste into the sea. Plastic and glass bottles, tires, cans and other packaging, it is a lot of waste that pollutes an environment that is also a marine park, refuge of many species.
Large from the Greek island of Alónissos, at Aegean Sea, volunteer divers collected a lot of garbage this week, in a cleaning operation funded by (EU) to protect marine life.
The Aegean Sea is like a “bay” or sub-region of the Mediterranean Sea, with enormous geographical, historical and cultural importance, especially for Greece and Turkey.
The debris recovered to the Largo de Alónissos, a much sought after tourist destination that houses the largest protected marine park in Europe, represent only A tiny part of the tens of thousands of tons of waste that every year pollute the Mediterranean Sea.
Created in the early 1990s, the Alónissos Marine Park is the habitat of one of the last surviving colonies of From the world and also serves as a refuge for over 300 species of fish, dolphins and sea turtles.
The existence of this sanctuary has been increasingly sensitizing residents and visitors to the dangers of marine pollution, says Theodora Francis, one of the diving who participated in the two -day action.
“We visited four or five zones to see if we found garbage,” said Francis. “In most of these zones, we didn’t find it, but in other yes.”
O Porto de Votsi, the island’s main tourist and fishing point, was identified as the area most affected by waste accumulation.
“We believe in individual responsibility and this is what we invest”
With the purpose of Preserving coastal biodiversity, Greece committed to creating two more sea parks, one in the Aegean Sea and one in the Ionic Seaanother “arm” of the Mediterranean Sea, as part of a set of 21 initiatives totaling 780 million euros.
It was also approved legislation to expand protected marine areas up to 30% of the country’s territorial waters by 2030. Athens has already presented to the EU a detailed plan on how to manage fish, tourism and energy activities in these zones.
“People around the world should know that we have the strength to change everything. We truly believe in individual responsibility and that’s what we invest,” said George Sarelakos, president of the Greek organization, responsible for the cleaning operation this week for two days.
