On 14 May 2014, the official Belgium Healthy Seas kick off took place in Ostend, during a press event “Together towards a waste free North Sea”, organized by the Foundation for Sustainable Fisheries Development (Stichting voor Duurzame Visserijontwikkeling), together with Healthy Seas, WasteFreeOceans, Ecodivers Belgium and other partners. Vice Prime Minister of Belgium, also Minister of North Sea, Mr Johan vande Lanotte, was the guest of honor of the meeting and stressed the importance of healthy and clean seas and relevant initiatives.

On behalf of Healthy Seas Mrs Hanneke Wijnja and Mr Robert Steenbergen (ECNC Land & Sea Group) introduced the initiative and on behalf of the Ecodivers, Mr Roel van Bouwel explained the foreseen diving actions as part of Healthy Seas and the Belgium Fishing for Litter.

During the meeting, a Declaration of Intent was signed by the Foundation for Sustainable Fisheries Development, the Ecodivers, Healthy Seas and WasteFreeOceans. The Declaration states that the parties agree to cooperate together for Healthy Seas in Belgium, also to increase cooperation between Healthy Seas and the Belgium Fishing for Litter project. All partners will have an important and active role in implementing the Declaration of Intent. The Ecodivers will remove ghost fishing nets around and on shipwrecks before the Belgium coast, and those nets will be assembled in the container park in Ostend and transported to the Healthy Seas founding partner Aquafil factory facilities for cleaning and recycling. The Foundation for Sustainable Fisheries Development and Healthy Seas will support the Ecodivers and the Foundation will manage the net collection point in Ostend. WasteFeeOceans will coordinate issues from the side of Belgium and also showcase the activities as best practices for clean oceans and sees.

As part of the stakeholder and awareness actions, the Foundation for Sustainable Fisheries Development, WasteFreeOceans and Healthy Seas will inform all Belgium fishermen about Healthy Seas, and will offer them each one pair of Healthy Seas socks, produced by Healthy Seas founding partner Star Sock. Also municipalities and relevant companies along the Belgium coast will be invited to cooperate with the partners towards a healthy and waste free North Sea.