Electric skates, bicycles, vehicle tires, mugs, plastic bottles, stools, even an umbrella base, were “fished” on Tuesday morning by divers who dived in Thermaikos Gulf, at the height of the White Tower, in Thessaloniki. In fact, a motorcycle was also located and retrieved from the bottom of Thermaikos!

Thermal Cleaning

The garbage that polluted the marine area was collected as part of an underwater cleaning action that took place on the beach of Thessaloniki. Thirty (30) divers dived into the waters of Thermaikos, at a depth of 5 meters and a distance of up to 20 meters from the shore, in order to clean the underwater area from what some unconscious people have thrown there and ended up in the sea, from the height of the White Tower to and the 1st pier of the port.

The collected objects are gathered in front of the White Tower and the images cause passers-by to be impressed, but also disappointed.

“We find too much waste, we find plastics which unfortunately do not break down. There are many metals that oxidize. The tragic thing that we see, beyond the glasses and electric bicycles, is that we find too many batteries”, the general manager of the MEPP company, Sotiris Nikolaou, who participates in the cleanup, said, among other things, in his statements.

The well-known veteran basketball player, Lazaros Papadopoulos, also dived to the bottom of Thermaikos as a volunteer diver. “It’s nice to try to clean the sea, but on the other hand it’s a shame that we have so much garbage in the sea,” said Lazaros Papadopoulos in his statements and emphasized that “the sea is our life and especially here in Greece it gives us a lot, so we must respect her.”

For his part, the president and managing director of OLTH SA, Athanasios Liagos, stated that he was surprised by what was recovered from the bottom of Thermaikos and added that “for the second year in a row we are proud to be cleaning Thermaikos”, while announcing that a similar action will be taken and in the future.

According to thestival.gr, the cleaning of the bottom of Thermaikos took place as part of an underwater cleaning action carried out at the initiative of OLTH SA. in collaboration with MEPP (Mediterranean Company Environmental Protection) and with the support of: Antipollution of V Group, Hellenic Marine Environment Protection Association (HELMEPA), Hellenic Environmental Center SA (HEC), Hill International, Optima Bank, Rogan Associates, Alpha Bank , TEF – Helexpo, Samaras & Partners.

The action took place under the auspices of: Ministry of Shipping & Insular Policy, Ministry of Interior (Macedonia-Thrace Sector), Region of Central Macedonia, Municipality of Thessaloniki, Union of Ports of Greece (E.LI.ME).