Caps, bags, pieces of nets or nylon ropes are examples of plastic debris that, in addition to their visual impact, pose a danger to marine fauna and flora and could even represent, due to their trophic transfer, a risk to humans. With the aim of raising awareness of the environmental problem of marine litter that affects all the seas and oceans of the planet and contributing to minimizing this impact, Campus do Mar and the Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo and Adega are organizing a simultaneous cleanup on twenty Galician beaches on November 11.
Participating municipalities and how to register
Cedeira, Fisterra, Muros, Muxía, Porto do Son, Rianxo, Carballo, Ribadeo, Moaña, Baiona and Nigrán are some of the municipalities where clean-ups will be carried out. All those who wish to do so can participate voluntarily by registering until November 10 (before 1:00 p.m.) at the addresses campusmar@uvigo.es (municipalities of the Ría de Vigo) and adega@adega.gal (rest of municipalities). For the correct development of the clean-up, there will be coordinators for each group of volunteers. They will have to register as volunteer-coordinators before November 6 at the address campusmar@uvigo.es and attend the free training day that will take place on the 9th from 4:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the University of Vigo. All those coordinators who cannot attend or volunteers interested in this training day can follow it live at http://tv.campusdomar.es/live.
For ecological cleaning
People who participate in cleaning some of the beaches chosen to carry out this activity will receive a new protocol that explains in a simple way the steps to follow during and after cleaning with the aim of carrying out this task in an ecological way. Thus, it is advised during the cleaning to use gloves and footwear to avoid injuries, to separate different types of garbage and then deposit them in each container or not to touch dead animals. The collected garbage must be weighed to estimate its volume, likewise, a joint evaluation and a report with the images obtained will be carried out.
With this proposal, Campus do Mar and the Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo aim to contribute once again to raising awareness about the importance of the values of our coast, the problem of some anthropogenic impacts such as marine pollution, invasive algae or alteration of the ecosystem, as well as promoting the measures that each citizen can carry out to minimize these impacts, offering their knowledge and the service of volunteers.
The activity is in its seventh edition, after Adega began organizing it in 2012. The University’s Marine Research Center points to the cleanup on November 11 as “the first edition of a program that aims to be consolidated and expanded in the coming years, in which citizen participation will be sought in obtaining results on the state of the coast and the proposal of measures that promote sustainable management of ecosystems and marine resources,” explain Antonio Villanueva and Alba Hernández, manager and head of the research center’s outreach activities, respectively.
More information:
http://adega.gal/axenda.php?id=472&idioma=gl&sec=12
Cellar: 981 570 099
Campus do Mar: 986 13 00 00
Download poster of the cleaning activity
Download poster of the training activity
Source: DUVI
