in Greece, some fishermen give up fish to clean the sea

In Amorgos (Greece), Nikolas Vekris came to clean the sea. On this island, certain isolated islands are littered with rubbish loaded by the Mediterranean. “There are plastic bottles, lots of caps, I don’t even know how there can be so many. I was born in the sea. Seven decades at sea, day and night. Seeing that is the worst thing that could happen”, he confides. Nikolas Vekris is paid 385 euros for the operation. In exchange, he stops fishing for two months. The idea comes from the fishermen themselves.

“We saw our fishing nets empty. At the same time, the nets started to fill with plastic. So we had this idea of ​​stopping fishing in April and May to let the fish reproduce”, explains Michalis Krosman, president of the professional association of fishermen of Amorgos. In 70 years, Nikolas Vekris has seen fish become rarer, but has not lost hope. Supported by the island’s 40 fishermen and scientists, he wants to completely ban fishing around Amorgos from April to May and ban year-round activities in three protected areas. At the port, the waste unloaded leaves for Athens (Greece) and will mostly be recycled.

Funded by foundations and an online prize pool, the program however lacks the means for all fishermen to participate. “All fishermen have families and make a living from this profession. (…) If we stop for two months, we need financial support”justifies one of them, Ioanis Psakis.