During the first weekend of April, in our traditional good collaboration with the diving center SUBSEASON, we organized this year’s edition of the underwater eco-cleanup action in the Lošinj waters, ‘The Sea Knows, the Island never forgets.’ A total of 224 dedicated participants removed 3,260 kg of waste from the seabed in Mali Lošinj, Nerezine, Susak, and Srebrna Bay on Čikat!
106 divers from 15 clubs across Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, and Germany contributed to removing numerous glass bottles, chairs, tires, buckets, cans, shoes, clothing, and various other debris from the seafloor. The good news shared by the divers—and which makes us all happy—is that there was significantly less waste than in previous years.
Among the volunteers handling the waste on land, this year we were joined by partners from the ‘We Can Do Without Plastic’ project—the association Tatavaka from Zlarin. This project is funded by the Ministry of Regional Development and EU funds under the call for island associations. We believe they will apply some of the acquired experiences on their own island.
The collected waste data was entered into the Clean Swell database by our volunteers as part of the European Citizen Science (ECS) program to contribute to global efforts in finding appropriate solutions to the problem of marine litter. This higher goal was also recognized by the European Commission, which included our action in the international campaign European Maritime Day in My Country.
As the organizers of this major eco-action, we thank all stakeholders from the local community who made its successful implementation possible—the City of Mali Lošinj, the Tourist Board of Mali Lošinj, the County Port Authority Mali Lošinj, Jadranka Tourism, Jadranka Trade, Komunalne Usluge Cres-Lošinj, the Lošinj Museum, Ambroz Haračić High School, the Community Services Center Mali Lošinj, as well as all associations and individuals who joined us!”