TEAM UP FOR THE OCEAN | LET'S GET INVOLVED

The Mediterranean is a tiny portion of ocean, amounting to just 0.32 percent of the waters that cover our planet, yet as much as 7 percent of the world's microplastics are here, in the depths of the sea where we grew up, where we swim in summer, the sea that nourishes us and that we sail in: our sea.

Being outraged is good, but not enough: each of us can and must help reverse this course of events to save the ocean or, at least, to limit the damage. It doesn't take much, it just takes getting involved. Which is what the guys from Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli have been doing, experiencing some very special fishing sessions with the men from Ogyre: recovering as much litter as possible and disposing of it properly.

Today it's the turn of Bruno Rosetti, cyclor of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, who was on board of Ogyre's fishing boat in Santa Margerita Ligure, where he grew up and learned to swim.

For him, too, seeing so much litter in the net and seeing the polluted conditions of our seas close-up was a nasty surprise: «I boarded a 1945 fishing boat with Lorenzo and Daniele, it’s the "oldest" of the Santa Margherita fleet, and I spent a very interesting day, which made me think a lot».

«Every time we pulled the net out we witnessed signs of our incivility that emerged from the seabed: plastic bottles, bins, shoes, even a cowboy hat, and, above all, an impressive amount of nylon tops, remnants of lines used for night fishing. I didn't expect this because on the surface you can't see anything, the plastics, in fact, settle on the bottom. We were out at sea from dawn to early afternoon and collected a total of 12 kgs of plastic. Back at the dock, Lorenzo and Daniele first photographed and weighed the "harvest" and then deposited it in the dumpsters that Ogyre has made available to the fishermen participating in the project: the reusable plastics will be recycled; the others will be disposed of in the most appropriate manner and place. I am glad to have done my part and hope to be involved again in this project with Ogyre, which is particularly important to me. If we work with commitment maybe it’s not too late to save the sea».

During the trip with Lorenzo and Daniele, we also had time to chat about how the sea has changed in recent years. Who better than the two fishermen from the Ogyre fleet could tell Bruno about how the bottom of the sea, in some places, is covered in plastic? Unfortunately, they can spot the most polluted part right away, because it is usually the least fished part. But they also added, «Thanks to Ogyre we are able to bring ashore and properly dispose of all the plastic we find in our nets, and the sea is grateful, because it is rewarding us again with its greatest gift: fish».