5 underwater cleaning actions carried out in the campaign “Together for a cleaner Adriatic”.

Last weekend, as many as five underwater cleaning campaigns were held as part of the “Together for a Cleaner Adriatic” campaign funded by Procter and Gamble, organized by the Argonauts Association in cooperation with diving clubs across the Adriatic. More than a hundred participants in the action, divers, volunteers at sea and on land, members of associations, utilities and individuals supported the cleaning actions and cleaned the Adriatic seabed for about 20 cubic meters of waste!

The action was first started by the association Koga briga .. from Rijeka, whose members cleaned the seabed of the Preluk bay between Rijeka and Opatija, and about 3 cubic meters of various waste were collected in the action. Then, the Dubrovnik Diving Club joined the action, whose members cleaned the seabed at two locations, on the beaches Solitudo and Madrač, where about 50 bags of waste from the sea were collected. The Korčula Ecological Diving Club cleaned the seabed of the port of Uš. Last year, about 20 cubic meters of waste were collected at this location in the same campaign, and this year about 4 cubic meters of waste at the same location, which tells us that awareness of reducing marine pollution is still increasing, given that the sea is mostly old waste, and there are fewer and fewer new ones.

The campaign “Together for a cleaner Adriatic” continued on Sunday, when members of the Powerlifting Club and Diving Club Roniti se mora from Sibenik cleaned the seabed of the island of Krapanj, and members of the Ecological Association Brodarica-Krapanj, Tourist Board Brodarica-Krapanj and DVD Brodarica- Krapanj. About 100 bags of waste from the sea and some large waste were collected in the action, and the need for future actions at this location is great.

Local utility companies helped dispose of the collected waste: Čistoća Dubrovnik, Čistoća Pag, Čistoća Rijeka, KTD Hober from Korčula and Zeleni grad Šibenik, and the action was supported by numerous volunteers at sea and on land who helped accept waste from the sea.

Every year we are shocked by the amount of waste divers remove from the seabed, and such images give us an incentive for new activities, both in terms of organizing new underwater cleaning actions and work on education, especially for children and youth to prevent pollution of the sea and coast. . We are especially glad to see that younger members of diving clubs also took part in the cleaning actions, because we believe that participating in such actions greatly helps to raise awareness of the problem of marine pollution.

The Argonauts Association is extremely grateful to the clubs for their response to the participation in the “Together for a Cleaner Adriatic” campaign, excellent cooperation and the organization of underwater cleaning campaigns. The actions held this year also received a humanitarian note, given that part of the donations intended for the implementation of actions was repurposed for the purchase of vehicles for people with disabilities and the purchase of exoskeletons to help the disabled.

We will continue to socialize and have good cooperation with diving clubs at the end of August, when all diving clubs and associations that participated in the first cycle of underwater cleaning actions will visit Murter and Kornati. In addition to cleaning actions on the island of Murter, organized by the Argonauts Association and the Diving Club “Murter-Kornati”, for the weekend as part of the campaign “Together for a cleaner Adriatic” is preparing a “Sea Festival”, an educational and informative event that will include various contents the sea and the marine world.