A total of 70,000 liters of waste were collected from the coastline by Catalan fishermen during 2022.
The cleanup work was carried out as part of the “Pesca Neta” campaign, with which every year the fishermen seek to raise awareness among citizens so that they can better manage waste and not throw it into the sea.
Around 600 boats from the different fishermen’s guilds of Barcelona, Girona and Tarragona set sail to sea for the clean-up.
Thanks to their joint work, they were able to remove more than 70,000 liters of waste from the sea by 2022. A total of 11 tanker trucks were filled with this waste during the past year.
Data on the amount of waste extracted from the sea was consolidated through the mobile application “Pesca Neta”, from which fishermen register the garbage they remove from the sea.
70,000 liters of waste: what did the fishermen find?
Of the total waste recovered last year, figures compiled by the app indicate that 62% of the waste was bags, rods, bottles, fishing line, wipes, plastic containers and single-use masks.
The removal of these and other residues found was carried out by trawlers and small-scale fishing vessels. Together, they represented 79% of the active fishing fleet in Catalonia, which includes more than 1,200 fishermen and sailors.
For her part, Itziar Segarra, deputy director of Fisheries, affirms that “fishermen are not sweepers of the sea, their job is to fish”. However, they are moving forward with this initiative because the sea is their place of work and it is unfortunate to find such a large amount of waste in its waters.
Pesca Neta: for a blue Mediterranean Sea
Cleaning up the Mediterranean has become a commitment of the Catalan fishermen and the reason for all the fishermen’s guilds in Catalonia to unite.
This is a collective action where the territorial federations of fishermen’s guilds, together with the Federació Nacional Catalana de Cofraries de Pescadors, join forces to organize the collection system of marine debris, while the fishermen carry out their work.
With resignation, the fishermen state that “more towelettes are caught than fish”.
The “Pesca Neta” project incorporates boats from different fishing modalities and allows fishermen to be recognized in the fight against plastic in the sea.
In order to finance the marine waste collection system, the Department of Climate Action and Food allocates one million euros annually to this initiative.
The amount is distributed among the federations of participating Catalan fishermen’s guilds.
This assistance is 75% co-financed by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).
In addition to removing waste, the program also helps to restore the environment.
