Thanks to our partner Enaleia, unemployed young people in Greece are educated about sustainable fisheries and fishing tourism. Enaleia is a social enterprise aiming to make the marine ecosystem sustainable. They created the first professional fishing school in Greece in 2016 and have been our partner since 2017. Thanks to our cooperation, the students are taught about responsible handling of waste fishing nets, recycling and circular economy. Until today, 60 fishing boat captains and 25 students have been introduced to Healthy Seas through their curriculum.
In addition, through this cooperation, a collection point has been set up for fishermen in Greece to give their end-of-life nets as well as the ghost nets they catch in their active nets, to Healthy Seas. According to Lefteris Arapakis, Director and Co-Founder of Enaleia, ghost nets make up as much as 30% of the total collected! Given the scale of the problem, it is crucial to engage the fishing industry in prevention activities. When an adequate quantity is accumulated, the nets are transferred to Nofir for cleaning and sorting and then to Aquafil, to be regenerated, along with other nylon waste, into ECONYL ® yarn.
While Healthy Seas is primarily an environmental initiative, we champion all 3 pillars of sustainability and strive to make a positive and long-lasting impact for the development of society through education and awareness-raising.
