As the holidays are approaching it is time to share some of the STM project highlights and results from the past three months in our last Quarterly Newsletter of 2020 and invite you all to join the Holiday initiatives that we have going on at the moment!
Participate in STM’s New Year’s raffle and Auction to help us save our RIB “Ondine”!
Sadly, towards the end of the year our much loved RIB “Ondine”, which we regularly use for research and multimedia expeditions, animal rescues and much more, broke down. To help fund the necessary repairs of the boat we have launched a New Year’s raffle and an Auction. Find out more and see all the prizes by visiting http://savethemed.rallyup.com. By participating and sharing the information you can help us save our boat and get it back to sea!
Plan your 2021 using the Save The Med Diary!
It’s filled with underwater photos and useful tips and tricks for a waste free lifestyle. All profits go straight towards Save The Med’s projects! Find the list of selling points on www.savethemed.org/news to get yours or give one away to a loved one! (Limited availability!)
Read our Newsletter below and sign up online if you want to receive future newsletters to your email!
Marine Protected Areas
On November 5th, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food published, declared the new marine reserve of Sa Dragonera in the external waters of the Sa Dragonera island. The new MPA, with an area of 457 hectares, is an amplification of the existing MPA in the internal waters between Dragonera and Mallorca, established in 2016.
The “Discover Your MPA Sa Dragonera” Project
Our favourite autumn highlights of the Discover Your MPA project include the painting of the murals of the Sant Elm Sports Centre, educational hiking tours on Sa Dragonera Island during which the participants learned about the ecological value of the marine reserve, and the plastic reduction workshop where around 20 local companies worked on strategies to eliminate single use plastics from their businesses! As 2020 ends, so does the first phase of this project. We are happy to announce that the second phase will begin early next year as the Marilles Foundation have committed to support the the project until the end of 2021!
Thunderbird has left the Mediterranean
One of the turtles we rescued and tagged this summer, Thunderbird, has officially left the Mediterranean and begun her long journey across the Atlantic Ocean, very likely heading to the beach where she was born to lay eggs. Her journey is filled with potential threats such as ghost gear, plastic pollution, vessel strikes and of course sharks. We truly hope that she will make it safe! Follow @savethemedexpeditions to read the “Turtle diaries” and follow her turtle tracks on a map!
Med Ghost Fad Project
Since the launch of the Med Ghost FAD project (www.ghostfads.org), close to 400 vessels have expressed interest in joining the fleet to collect data at sea, remove ghost FADS and help rescue entangled animals. To try to find out where the ghost FADs retrieved during our expeditions originated, backtrack modelling is being conducted in collaboration with SOCIB and UIB. By tracing winds and currents and matching them with the date, time and GPS coordinates of the found FADs, scientists can obtain information about the potential areas from which the FADs were released. Knowing where these areas are allows scientist to develop Action Plans which aim to solve the root cause of the problem.
Dos Manos Schools Programme
A total of 1095 students participated in the Dos Manos Schools Programme in 2020. They removed 39.846 plastic objects from beaches all around the island and many more schools have already signed up for 2021! To reserve your spot email ana@savethemed.org. Availability is limited!
The Changemakers are back!
Students who will turn 15 before the end of 2021 can now form teams of three and sign up to the 2021 edition of the Changemakers Project! This time, not only one but five (!) of the most impactful projects will be selected and the teams invited for expeditions at sea with the Save The Med scientists and educators! In addition, a monetary reward will be received per project, to spend on an environmental initiative or excursion with the whole class! Find our more at www.changemakersatsea.com.
Plastic Free Balearics
Since winning the BeMed call, the Balears Sense Plàstic are working together with Ibiza Preservation to achieve one single Balearic-wide certification for single use plastic reduction among companies named “Plastic Free Balearics.” The team has also been working to define a common road map in favour of reuse in the Balearic Islands together with Amics de la Terra, Begudes Puig, Cleanwave, the Deixalles Foundation, GOB, Eines per la Inserció - Càritas Mallorca, Ecobodega, Rezero-Fundació per la Prevenció dels Residus, Save the Med, Boomerang Bags and the UIB’s Office for a Healthy and Sustainable University. The entities signed a Pact of Re-use and are working to promote eco-design while highlighting the enormous environmental, social and economic benefits of re-use and repair.
The “Define Human” campaign
It is well known that the increase in pandemics and climate related problems are closely related to the loss of biodiversity and the human impact on nature, and that the only lasting way we can efficiently reduce such threats in the future, is by changing our relationship to nature. To find out how we can do this, Save The Med and Patterson Agency interviewed experts from different sectors and shared their replies in the new campaign “Define Human.” Through interviews, videos, infographics and downloadable materials, Define Human invites citizens to rethink our role in nature and proposes actions which can lead us towards a more resilient, collaborative society. Find out more and take action at www.definehumano.com and Instagram @definehumano.
Thank you!
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all who have contributed to and followed our work in 2020 and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! None of what we do would be possible without our fantastic volunteers, collaborators, members, corporate partners and funders, and all the teachers and students who have taken action for marine regeneration in 2020! A heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you from all of us at Save The Med! As we prepare for a very different Christmas this year, let this be a time to reflect on what we, as a collective can learn from 2020. Let this be a time to reconnect with our values and reconsider our priorities. Let this be a time to re-imagine, and act towards, a future where we restore our bond with nature and become a regenerative force on our Planet.