106 kg of plastic collected up at a beach here in Menorca

Last Sunday 14th February a wonderful bunch of people went out early in the morning to go and clean up a beach only accessible by boat.  It is part of the work that Per la Mar Viva carry out every year.  Unfortunately I was unable to go with them, but hopefully an opportunity will arise for me to do so.

Here is what they collected:

Some of those tubes are enormous!

All of this was collected up in one morning.   As you can see a lot of the plastic looks like waste from construction, I think it is pretty difficult to understand how this amount of stuff ended up in the sea! The boat I can imagine that due to the heavy storms we have had it just got battered on the rocks and fell into pieces.

 

Per La Mar Viva are involved with the Menorca Preservation Fund who recently provided their monthly newsletter giving the following update:

With your support, in 2020 we were able to...

Support 3 scientific studies in the field of marine conservation.
Support new local projects with + € 50,000.
Support 4 outreach and awareness initiatives.
Lead of the creation of the Plastic Free Menorca Alliance and support its first steps.
Avoid 20 tons of local produce from going to waste during lockdown, by purchasing from our local farmers and distributing it to 140 vulnerable families.
Support 15 local entities with their environmental projects.
Collaborate with 3 farms in the improvement of their water management systems.
Add 3 more local companies that wish to work in a more sustainable way and at the same time support us in our mission.
Extract more than 1.5 tons of waste from the sea.

 

And here we go again! We'd like to share with you all the four new environmental projects supported by MEPF

The projects, closely linked to the Sustainable Development Goals, will be carried out during 2021 and have a total value of € 20,000, of which 60% will be directly financed by the Menorca Preservation Fund.

On the one hand, the Societat Ornitològica de Menorca (Menorca's ornithological society) has been the recipient of the first of these grants in 2021, for which the MEPF is supporting a study of the feeding areas of the paíños, a seabird whose colony, located in the Isla del Aire Marine Reserve (Sant Lluís), will provide important knowledge. It will help to protect these and other birds that nest in Mediterranean coastal areas. These small birds are believed to be able to travel up to 1,000km in 3 days in order to feed.

On the other hand, the local radio station Ràdio Far Cultural has launched its “KM0” initiative, a new radio project. In the format of an interview with different prominent environmental actors, the program seeks to reach young audiences in order to raise awareness among them about the need to manage fresh water responsibly or to consume local and seasonal products, to name two examples of programs already broadcasted and that are available on their web site esfarcultural.com.

At the same time, the Surf and Clean Association has been the recipient of the third recently approved grant. “Learning through surfing” will be its pilot project in Menorca and which will take place in Ciutadella, with 160 students but aiming to implement the initiative permanently on the island. The objective is to raise awareness amongst primary school students regarding the respect for our marine environments and how important it is to live closely linked to the sea, preserving life in the oceans and avoiding plastic pollution and other dangers in the marine environment.

Lastly, the MEPF has approved the GoZeroWaste project, in close collaboration with the Plastic Free Menorca Alliance. Through this project, the MEPF seeks to promote the challenge of eliminating or drastically reducing our waste generation through the use of an APP linking to local businesses, creating challenges, etc.

So all in all there are some fantastic things going on here on Menorca.

 

 

I really like the look of the GoZeroWaste project, that looks great, exactly what I am interested in and am trying to do.. Less waste!

The blog song for today is: "Last Nite" by The Strokes.

TTFN