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Help fish, stop plastic pollution - 5th December 2019

An island famed for fabulous beaches and azure sea, Zakynthos is no stranger to plastic pollution. Even here, this serious threat endangers wildlife including fish and turtles.

Volunteers from across the globe have journeyed to Zakynthos in support of the organisation Aegean Rebreath, and its quest to safeguard local biodiversity. After just three hours diving, they land a haul of four tyres, two shopping carts, a street lamp, metal boxes, plastic bags, plastic bottles and multiple kilometres of fishing line.

Biologists, at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research in Athens, report identifying plastic in 20-45 percent of all species tested, while it is also present in 75 percent of all the turtles examined.

George Triantaphyllidis, a member of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, contends that as responsible individuals, we must change our use of plastics.

George Triantaphyllidis: "I believe that everybody should change its habits. So, we don’t have to use single-use plastics in our daily life. We have to do a small revolution inside ourselves first."