Italian fishermen fight to rid the sea of plastic waste

Gulf News

For the full story, go to: https://gn24.ae/8229cde0e29a000  Over the last few weeks several sperm whales have washed up on Italy's beaches, their stomachs full of plastic. Sea plastic is threatening the marine ecosystem, with fishermen on the frontline. At San Benedetto del Tronto, they're taking part in "fishing for plastic", a month-long experiment to get them to bring the plastic waste they catch in their nets back to dry land instead of throwing the rubbish back into the water.   #GulfNews #fishermen #PlasticWaste

Transcript

00:00It's the middle of the night and the fishermen of San Bernadetto del Pronto are already bringing

00:07their nets below the Atlantic Sea. As usual, they have fish, crustaceans and lots of plastic.

00:14Now the sorting begins. For the past few weeks they've collected bottles, cans, paint pots

00:21and more. Everything they catch is kept on board and not thrown back into the sea. In

00:27the past, laws prohibiting waste transportation and the lack of facilities on land prevented

00:32them from doing so. Before there was no one on land to take the plastic. Now someone has

00:40had this excellent idea and we really hope it continues. It's all part of the pan-European

00:51Clean Sea Life project, with the help of fishermen, the main witnesses and first victims of sea

00:58pollution. The operation, named Fishing for Plastic, will last a month and the 40 fishing

01:03boats sailing from this Adriatic port have agreed to take part. We all saw the pictures

01:13of dead sperm whales washed up on beaches. There were three recently. Their stomachs

01:18were full of plastic. This wakes people up and makes the whole world see what specialists

01:23have been saying for years. The amount of plastic in the sea has reached a dramatic

01:28level. In two weeks over a tonne of waste has been recovered. It's weighed, catalogued

01:37and sorted by volunteers, with the support of port authorities who are also involved

01:42in the project. The rubbish that ends up in the sea all comes from people, from lakes

01:50and rivers. It's essential to educate people, tell them that what they put in the water

01:58ends up in the sea. That's what this initiative is also about. A draft bill is now before

02:06the Italian Parliament to provide facilities and money for handling the waste and the San

02:11Benedetto del Tronto initiative hopes to spread across the rest of the country and

02:15even Europe.

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