Volunteer Divers Take On Underwater Pollution

Fighting Pollution Under the Sea

These volunteer divers are taking the issue of underwater pollution into their own hands, insiring and changing the world for the better. The diving group is called Aegean Rebreath. They take a boat off the coast of the Greek island of Paros and remove trash from the sea. George Sarelakos founded the diving team in 2017. Most of us are divers that have dove around the globe and we know that the problem is huge concerning marine pollution and marine litter. The group has over 20 volunteer divers trying to contribute to a global solution.

Aegean Rebreath has recovered more than 17 tons of trash from the ocean. “For example, today in Paros, apart from all the single-use plastic we found, we also we were able to find some trollies, supermarket trollies, cans — anything that can be found on the mainland within a house.”

Elena Aleiferi Hellenic Navy Officer and volunteer – “I love to be in the sea, since I was a child, I’m close to the sea and it’s very sad to see all this garbage. I believe that it’s very important to clean. And it’s more important not to throw the garbage in the ocean.”

Greece has the longest coastline in Mediterranean Sea Basin ecology — and one of the worst environmental recycling rates, at 17%. The European Union wants member states to have a 50% recycling rate by 2020.

Aegean Rebreath also teaches local governments, communities, and schools about the circular economy — as in, how to recycle, reuse or repurpose items instead of throwing them away. “What we really expect through our work is to spread our concept across Greece and the rest of Europe, and it would be great if it could be around the world.”

Brut.