By Nicolas Bard

The modern lifestyle and the culture to throw away plastics, after their first use, now has a major impact on the seas and oceans. According to recent research, plastic waste is increasingly infecting the oceans on our planet, and if we continue at these rhythms, by 2050 the seas will have more plastics than fish! Today it is estimated that there are more than 150 million tonnes of plastic in the oceans, and each year they end up at sea 4.8 to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic. It is easily understood, these exaggerated quantities disrupt marine life and human health, while significantly affecting both the climate and the economy.

Plastics not only injure sea animals, but even when crushed into small pieces of plastic they pass through their body through food. As a result, it is prevented from digesting normal food and penetrating many toxic substances into their body, which later, through the food chain, pass through humans. However, the waste that ends at sea cause great damage to the economy. Indicatively, the cost of marine waste ranges between 259 to 695 million euros, mainly in the tourism and fishing sector. In fact, 49% of the waste currently located in the seabed are disposable plastic and 27% plastic waste from fishing tools, while in the top 3 of the most frequent waste we find plastic bottles (with their lids), cigarette butts and cotton swabs. !

In order to tackle this problem on the coast of Santorini, a group of experienced divers has decided since 2019 to clean the beaches and the seabed of the island, and their work has brought a major change to the landscape and the environment. His camera where there is Greece traveled to the beach of Caldera, in Akrotiri, Santorini, and recorded divers and simple volunteers in action. Their goal? To make more awareness of people, and to keep the island’s coasts clean for future generations.