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Fish Farm Clean Up: What they pulled from a Forty Ton Ghost Farm will SHOCK you! · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  Shocking footage from a cleanup project of a ghost fish farm in Greece reveals
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  the true cost of mismanagement what looked like a quiet stretch of water
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  hid more than 40 tons of plastic cages, nets, pipes, and even sunken boats.
• 0:15
  This entire entire site had been left to rott after a fish farm shut down
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  turning the sea floor into a toxic scrap yard that continued to break
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  apart and pollute the Saronic Gulf.
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  Today, i'm taking you inside what the divers found, how they hauled this
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  mountain of waste out of the ocean, and why ghost farms like this are
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  becoming one of the most overlooked threats to the coastal ecosystems.
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  We're gonna talk about that on today's episode of How To
• 0:40
  Protect The Ocean Podcast.
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  Let's start the show.
• 0:45
  Hey everybody.
• 0:46
  Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, marine biologist and science communicator
• 0:52
  here to tell you what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for
• 0:55
  the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action.
• 0:59
  Now on today's episode, we're gonna be talking about why fish farms are being
• 1:02
  left abandoned, and what happens to the coastline when fish farms are just left to
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  just disintegrate and pollute the ocean in this small local area of the Saronic sea
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  that we're gonna be talking about today.
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  But speaking of coastal systems, we need to talk more about the health of
• 1:19
  coastal ecosystems, and that's why I am trying to get a new podcast funded
• 1:24
  all about one of the most productive and coolest and probably the most
• 1:28
  untalked, like not talked about coastal ecosystem that's around
• 1:32
  and that is seagrass habitats.
• 1:34
  I'm trying to fund a new podcast called The Seagrass Effect, that talks
• 1:38
  about seagrass science, conservation, and restoration to really understand
• 1:41
  for having you understand and help
• 1:43
  disseminate the information around seagrasses, the research, the
• 1:46
  conservation, the restoration.
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  It's all important, but we don't talk about it enough and
• 1:50
  we need to talk about it more.
• 1:51
  Researchers don't talk to each other enough, and this podcast will help
• 1:54
  connect research and researchers and conservationists and restoration
• 1:58
  projects around the world, and I can't wait to bring that to
• 2:02
  you, but I'm funding this podcast
• 2:04
  through crowdfunding through balean.org.
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  It's a new organization that is helping people with independent
• 2:10
  projects get their projects funded to help with ocean conservation.
• 2:13
  So if you go to speak up for blue.com/seagrass, you can go and
• 2:17
  participate in helping fund this podcast.
• 2:20
  Not only are you gonna be funding podcast to share information
• 2:23
  and connect researchers and conservationists and restoration sites,
• 2:25
  but you're also going to be helping
• 2:27
  restore seagrass habitats, and we're gonna be tracking it all along the way, and I
• 2:32
  can't wait for you to be a part of that.
• 2:33
  Go to speak up for blue.com/seagrass to help fund the Seagrass Effect podcast.
• 2:38
  That'll be coming soon as soon as we get it funded.
• 2:40
  Crowdfunding by the people, for the people, for the ocean.
• 2:44
  So this, if you wanna do something for the ocean, this is something that you
• 2:46
  can do if you really believe in it.
• 2:48
  So I hope you ask questions, let me know in the comments below or hit me up on
• 2:51
  Instagram at how to protect the ocean.
• 2:53
  But anyway, let's get back into the show.
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  We're talking today about coastal ecosystems that need to be cleaned up.
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  And so this is what happens in Greece.
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  We've teamed up with Healthy Seas.
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  I'm gonna link to the episode right above here that I did with Healthy
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  Seas before we did an interview about why they need to clean up these sites?
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  Why does Greece have all these abandoned fish farms?
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  And is Greece the only country that has abandoned fish farms?
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  Which that's not true.
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  But this is an area in the Saronic Gulf in Methana, where there was an abandoned
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  fish farm just along the coastline.
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  It's kind of weird.
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  And there's a bit in the open ocean in the coast.
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  But it's hard to get to.
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  It's hard to manage and nobody's actually looking at it, and you'll
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  be shocked at what they actually picked up and what they found.
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  It is unreal what people are willing to leave in the ocean, whether it's
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  sunk or whether they left it floating.
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  It doesn't matter.
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  Like the ocean's harsh, so eventually this stuff kind of just gets
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  destroyed and sinks to the bottom of the ocean and then it pollutes.
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  It's essentially that's what it was.
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  So this is showing how these fish farms contribute to marine pollution
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  where you have rust, where you have metals from anything metal
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  that's actually disintegrating.
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  You have plastics and netting and everything.
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  If you think about what an open pen site looks like, it is a bunch of circles or
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  squares that are floating at the surface.
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  They look harmless at the top.
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  And they're just like, they might be plastic around the size.
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  Some of it might be metal at the top.
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  It all depends on who built it.
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  And you just see this top and you're like, oh, what are these circles?
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  What are these squares?
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  And they're like, oh yeah, that's where they grow fish.
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  And so you have all these areas but when the fish are gone and the pen
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  shuts down, what happens to these pens?
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  Like how does the company actually clean 'em up?
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  Well, in Greece, apparently they don't, they don't clean them up,
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  and so they're allowed to abandon them, which is not in the law.
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  It's actually in the law for them to clean it up, but that doesn't get enforced.
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  And so Healthy Seas in partnership with the.
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  I'm gonna try and pronounce this probably 'cause it's Greek.
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  So the Healthy Seas Foundation in partnership with Athanasios C.
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  Laskaridis Charitable Foundation.
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  So Athanasios C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation teamed up
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  to help pick up this fish farm.
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  Now is this the first fish farm that the Healthy Seas has done?
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  No, this is actually the fifth ghost farm that they've actually cleaned up under
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  the Healthy Seas Operation Ghost Farms.
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  So this is something that's really, really important and it's
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  supported by none other than Hyundai Motor Europe, and the volunteer
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  technical divers from Ghost Diving.
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  So there are a lot of people involved in this.
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  Not only is Healthy Seas, which is a smaller organization that has a big
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  volunteer network, and then you have the Charitable Foundation, Athanasios
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  C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation.
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  So they're helping out Hyundai Motors helping out, and you know how they're
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  helping out because they take the ghost nets and they make mats out of them, like
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  the foot mats, the car mats out of them.
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  Believe it or not, that's happened.
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  It's just amazing what you can do when you take somebody's trash and you
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  make into something that they could sell, that they could put in these
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  cars, and that's more reusable, more sustainable for the planet by not
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  keeping them in the ocean by taking the nets out of the ocean.
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  So let's go over what they found.
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  This is unreal.
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  So a total of 40.1 tons of marine litter was collected.
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  30.8 of that was tons of plastic cages.
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  The HDPE plastic cages.
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  These are the cages that kind of set up the nets that you see.
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  30.8 tons of those.
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  2.5 tons of fishing nets.
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  Think about this.
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  A fishing is pretty light.
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  With the actual fiber in it, the plastic fiber of it all is pretty light.
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  You have two and a half tons of it.
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  That adds up a lot of weight.
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  That's insane.
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  1.6 tons of styrofoam.
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  Imagine what styrofoam does in the ocean.
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  Once it starts to break down, you get those little mini pellets and
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  they start to float at the top.
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  Sometimes they sink 'cause they're covered by something and all these fish
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  float at the top and they start eating them and they start going into their
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  system, whether they adjust them or not.
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  They start going into the system, at some point it's gonna get in there.
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  And that's not good for them because all the toxins that make up as the body
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  of this fish tries to break down each and every one of those little pellets.
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  All those metals, all those contaminants get into their tissue.
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  Those fish get eaten by other larger predatory fish which get eaten by
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  larger marine mammals or sharks or other predatory fish and mammals and seabirds.
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  And those get the same kind of accumulation of toxins from these
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  little pellets, and then that goes into their systems and they could
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  eventually die from poisoning.
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  Even choking hazards if those little pellets haven't broken down yet.
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  And then of course you have 5.2 tons of metal cages, buoys and 2 2 sunken boats.
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  Imagine that you're just gonna leave that.
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  And of course, it filled with 12 industrial containers.
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  So those were all filled with some kind of material that is obviously not great.
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  So the fishing nets were sorted.
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  The suitable ones sent to the aquifer for econo yarn.
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  It goes to help the HDPE pipes and plastic parks were sent to local recycling
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  and the significant materials we're diverted to long-term pollution pathways.
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  So these are materials that won't break down easily, that when they
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  break down they become toxic.
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  So they have to go through a different process, and that is
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  like a long-term pollution pathway.
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  These ghost farms, they're abandoned aquaculture sites.
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  They become underwater junkyards.
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  They become pollutants, they become harmful to fish, they become harmful
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  to seabirds and also other large predatory fish that will bioaccumulate
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  all those harmful substances
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  in their tissues as they eat these fish that are basically toxic.
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  The pollution will continue for years.
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  Like these boats will not just break down.
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  They will rust forever.
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  They will continue to pollute and without any kind of oversight or
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  management, they're just gonna sit there abandon and affecting this environment.
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  And of course there's a lot of impacts on the ecosystem.
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  Fish habitat underneath, like you can't have seagrasses underneath
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  these types of aquaculture pens because you have boats that are sunk.
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  You have the nets that are covering everything.
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  There's shading and everything, and it's just gonna ruin that.
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  So you're not gonna have good quality, productive ecosystems and
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  habitats that make up those kind of coastal areas or even in open water.
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  'cause this waters Mediterranean we're talking about.
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  It's quite clear and we're probably not talking about a huge depth.
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  And you'll see from the videos from the B roll that we're showing.
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  You'll see that it's not like crazy deep, and you can have different habitats that
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  are very productive that will promote biodiversity, that will promote stability
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  in those systems if it's not polluted and if there's not a bunch of stuff on the
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  ground, like boats and nets and so forth.
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  So it'll really help to have that.
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  And of course, good water quality that's not full of toxins from the
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  styrofoam and the plastics and the metal resting and stuff like that.
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  Also, in this bonus of cleaning up not only the ocean, they decide to
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  do a cleanup of the beach because a lot of times that styrofoam
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  is gonna come up on the beach.
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  It's gonna wash up.
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  Other materials might wash up.
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  Over the years, like people who have gone to the beach and may not have treated
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  it very well, that got cleaned up.
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  So, it was a cleanup with 21 participants.
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  16 large bags of degraded plastics and marine debris
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  were removed, which is great.
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  Materials at risk of becoming microplastics were
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  removed which is wonderful.
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  And of course, Healthy Seas expanded their education programs this year.
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  So 435 students and professionals were reached.
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  Events in Greece, Italy, Germany, and the UK happened.
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  And of course, local kindergarten and primary school in Methena participated
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  in not only the beach cleanup, but looking at other stuff as well.
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  So these are important projects that happen with local communities.
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  We see the education that happens with the schools.
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  They participated in the beach cleanup, they participated in other
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  parts of the cleanup, and they got to see what it was like to actually
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  participate, not just observe.
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  Like there are times when you come out and you see a beach that is just
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  polluted and you are there to have a vacation or you're there to relax.
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  Maybe you live in the local area and you're there to relax.
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  And you see this beach polluted.
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  You hate it, but you're not gonna clean it up because why?
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  You don't feel incentivized to do it.
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  You kind of feel down about yourself 'cause when you see that kind of stuff,
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  it's never gonna make you feel good and you may not want to clean it up.
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  I know sometimes I didn't want to clean it up, but when you have a community
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  that participates in this and they clean it up, it makes you want to clean up
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  other beaches when you go to another beach or you go to somewhere else.
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  Even a river system or even a local area, even in your local neighborhood
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  where you're like, you know what, like I've participated in cleanups before.
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  I want to keep my area clean, so I'm gonna go and I'm gonna clean it up.
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  It incentivizes you and inspires you to do more and I think that's really good.
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  So that's something that's great.
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  Obviously ghost farms are still global issue, not just a Greek one.
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  It's found in other places.
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  Collaboration is key when you do these types of projects.
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  And then having like a recycling partnerships with local areas can
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  give new life to marine waste.
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  You can take those fishing nets and provide mats that, car mats
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  that go into cars for Hyundai cars.
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  Like, that's just amazing.
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  Obviously, it's not gonna fit like the one site or two sites, or three sites.
• 11:17
  The plastic you're gonna find from those nets aren't going to be the
• 11:20
  end all and be all for car mats for the car industry, but at least it can
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  have some good, reusable outcomes and more sustainability with that when
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  normally you wouldn't see that at all.
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  So having that, where those recycling partnerships are really important.
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  Plus these companies are proud to give money to help with
• 11:37
  this cleanup that it costs.
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  You're looking at divers, you're looking at boat time, you're looking
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  at some pretty hefty equipment to get some of this stuff out.
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  Taking a boat out of water is not gonna be easy.
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  You can't just do that with people.
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  You're gonna have to do that with machinery and that's gonna help with that.
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  And of course, obviously education helps build the surrounding foundations
• 11:54
  of local communities and what they can do to help out their local area.
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  So I think that's really important.
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  So the big thing here is we're showcasing Healthy Seas and I highly
• 12:03
  recommend that you support Healthy Seas.
• 12:05
  If you feel like you want to do something.
• 12:07
  If you feel like you wanna do something, you can support the
• 12:09
  podcast for seagrasses so that we can get more information outta seagrass
• 12:12
  and we can restore seagrass sites.
• 12:13
  If you want people more of these ghost fish farms to be cleaned up,
• 12:17
  Healthy Seas is doing that.
• 12:18
  They have the mechanisms, they have the partnerships, they have the
• 12:21
  ability to do it, and they have the proven service to be able to do that.
• 12:24
  So if you want to see less ghost farms in the ocean, you can support
• 12:29
  organizations and specifically Healthy Seas, and I'll put a link
• 12:32
  so that you can support that there.
• 12:33
  You can also share awareness.
• 12:34
  Share this video, share the content that comes out of this podcast, and share the
• 12:38
  content that comes out of Healthy Seas.
• 12:40
  I'll put a link to their channel so that people can be
• 12:42
  more aware that you know what?
• 12:43
  Ghost fish farms are a thing and that shouldn't be.
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  The company should not be abandoning these fish farms without cleaning them up first.
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  I don't care what situation they're in.
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  They have the responsibility to clean up since they managed it and
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  they bought it over at some point.
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  Whether they put it in or they just bought it over, they have to take
• 12:59
  it out and the governments should be
• 13:00
  focusing on making sure that those come out and making sure that these
• 13:03
  companies are held accountable to that.
• 13:05
  So having that awareness of aquaculture waste and ghost fish
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  farms, that's really important too.
• 13:10
  And of course, you know, looking at restoring these ecosystems.
• 13:14
  There's no reason why we should be looking out into the ocean and
• 13:17
  seeing pollution just sitting there.
• 13:19
  We should have the ability not only be able to see the pollution, but be able to
• 13:23
  take out the pollution or have mechanisms like people, like Healthy Seas and their
• 13:26
  partnerships to be able to come in and take out all that pollution, the nets, the
• 13:30
  boats, the cages, everything like that.
• 13:33
  And then being able to watch this site, restore it and sometimes
• 13:36
  itself, or have somebody else come in and restore it with sea grasses
• 13:40
  or coral reefs planting or mangrove planting, depending on where you are.
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  So I think it's really important to see that recovery and restoration of these
• 13:48
  projects is really, really important.
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  So I think it's extremely important that I want to highlight this.
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  I wanna thank Healthy Seas for making me aware of this project
• 13:56
  and for partnering with on this video and letting me have access to
• 13:59
  their footage and their pictures.
• 14:00
  And I wanna thank everybody that was involved in this project.
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  It's something that we need to see more of, and I wanted to help showcase this
• 14:07
  because it's such an important aspect of what we need to do and what we need
• 14:10
  to see, the people helping out, making sure that these ecosystems are intact,
• 14:15
  they're restored, and they're cleaned up.
• 14:16
  It's something that's very, very important.
• 14:18
  So that's it for today's episode.
• 14:20
  I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode.
• 14:23
  If you have any questions or comments, you can leave them in the comments
• 14:25
  below in this YouTube video.
• 14:27
  Or if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast
• 14:29
  app, you can just hit me up
• 14:30
  on Instagram at how to protect the ocean that's at how to protect the ocean.
• 14:34
  Or if you want to email me, you can do so.
• 14:36
  Go speak up for blue.com/contact and just fill out the form.
• 14:40
  It goes right to my personal email.
• 14:41
  I'd be happy to send you a message back.
• 14:44
  And I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
• 14:46
  How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
• 14:48
  I'm your host Andrew Lewin from the true nor strong and free, have a great day.
• 14:51
  We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.