Last updated on 15th January 2022
More than 70 fishermen, shipowners and auction staff have already participated in training and awareness-raising initiatives for the collection of marine litter, and management of onboard vessel waste. The campaign, which is part of the OceanLit project is supported by the Regional Secretary of Sea and Fisheries, the Regional Directorate of Fisheries and Regional Directorate of the Sea.
Training started in September 2021, and since then fishermen have already collected and brought ashore a tonne of marine litter, including nets, cables and buoys. In the six training and awareness-raising sessions held between September 2021 and now, forty-two fishing professionals, fishermen and shipowners, and thirty-two employees from the Lotas and Warehouses services department have taken part in the initiative.
It is the first time that the Regional Secretary for Sea and Fisheries, and the two regional directorates, have carried out a training/awareness programme for fishermen, masters and shipowners, which focuses on the collection of litter that is both discharged from fishing vessels/and found floating in the sea.
When the training programme was first presented, the Regional Secretary for Sea and Fisheries, Teófilo Cunha, said that he wanted the training to encompass the “whole ‘fisheries community, and that although we are all responsible for keeping the oceans clean, the emphasis must be placed on those who depend on the sea for their livelihood, and whose responsibility it is to protect the world’s oceans and resources.”
OceanLit is a project with a global budget of 1,381,744.25 euros, 85% reimbursed by the INTERREG MAC 2014-2020 Program, of the FEDER, whose main objectives are to generate knowledge about the problem of marine litter, as well as to create solutions to favour decision-making in reducing marine litter and its impact on the world’s oceans.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
Photo: Chris King – Unsplash
