Since October 2014, DeFishGear project partner, i.e. HCMR (Hellenic Centre for Marine Research) records and identifies marine litter collected by local fishermen on Corfu Island. Under the umbrella of “Fishing for Litter” activities, marine litter was collected by bottom trawlers during ordinary fishing activities and appropriate labelled bags (with information about the date and location where marine litter was collected) have been distributed to the fisherman. For the purposes of providing adequate site for the collection of marine litter, a container has been placed in the port of Corfu. Several experts from HCMR engaged in the DeFishGear project have performed a detailed separation and identification of marine litter. Up to this moment, total amount of app. 600 kg of marine litter has been collected by professional trawlers in Corfu.
Plastics were the most common type of marine litter (465 kg), followed by metal (46 Kg), rubber (46 kg) and textile (30 kg). Other categories such as glass or paper were of low contribution. After the survey, Fisheries Association was the guest of honour on the event organized on HCMR scientific research vessel (RV Philia). Upon this occasion T -shirts with the logo of DeFishGear project were given to all the fishermen who participated in this activity.
