Fish Farm Clean Up: What they pulled from a Forty Ton Ghost Farm will SHOCK you!

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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.

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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

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Protect The Ocean Podcast.

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Let's start the show.

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Hey everybody.

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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

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here to tell you what's happening with
the ocean, how you can speak up for

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the ocean, and what you can do to live
for a better ocean by taking action.

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Now on today's episode, we're gonna be
talking about why fish farms are being

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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

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coastal ecosystems, and that's why I
am trying to get a new podcast funded

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all about one of the most productive
and coolest and probably the most

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untalked, like not talked about
coastal ecosystem that's around

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and that is seagrass habitats.

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I'm trying to fund a new podcast
called The Seagrass Effect, that talks

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about seagrass science, conservation,
and restoration to really understand

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for having you understand and help

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disseminate the information around
seagrasses, the research, the

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conservation, the restoration.

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It's all important, but we
don't talk about it enough and

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we need to talk about it more.

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Researchers don't talk to each other
enough, and this podcast will help

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connect research and researchers
and conservationists and restoration

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projects around the world, and
I can't wait to bring that to

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you, but I'm funding this podcast

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through crowdfunding through balean.org.

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It's a new organization that is
helping people with independent

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projects get their projects funded
to help with ocean conservation.

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So if you go to speak up for
blue.com/seagrass, you can go and

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participate in helping fund this podcast.

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Not only are you gonna be funding
podcast to share information

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and connect researchers and
conservationists and restoration sites,

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but you're also going to be helping

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restore seagrass habitats, and we're gonna
be tracking it all along the way, and I

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can't wait for you to be a part of that.

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Go to speak up for blue.com/seagrass to
help fund the Seagrass Effect podcast.

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That'll be coming soon as
soon as we get it funded.

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Crowdfunding by the people,
for the people, for the ocean.

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So this, if you wanna do something for
the ocean, this is something that you

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can do if you really believe in it.

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So I hope you ask questions, let me know
in the comments below or hit me up on

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Instagram at how to protect the ocean.

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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.

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The plastic you're gonna find from
those nets aren't going to be the

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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

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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

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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

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recommend that you support Healthy Seas.

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If you feel like you want to do something.

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If you feel like you wanna do
something, you can support the

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podcast for seagrasses so that we can
get more information outta seagrass

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and we can restore seagrass sites.

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If you want people more of these
ghost fish farms to be cleaned up,

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Healthy Seas is doing that.

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They have the mechanisms, they have
the partnerships, they have the

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ability to do it, and they have the
proven service to be able to do that.

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So if you want to see less ghost
farms in the ocean, you can support

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organizations and specifically
Healthy Seas, and I'll put a link

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so that you can support that there.

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You can also share awareness.

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Share this video, share the content that
comes out of this podcast, and share the

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content that comes out of Healthy Seas.

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I'll put a link to their
channel so that people can be

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more aware that you know what?

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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

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it out and the governments should be

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focusing on making sure that those
come out and making sure that these

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companies are held accountable to that.

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So having that awareness of
aquaculture waste and ghost fish

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farms, that's really important too.

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And of course, you know, looking
at restoring these ecosystems.

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There's no reason why we should
be looking out into the ocean and

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seeing pollution just sitting there.

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We should have the ability not only be
able to see the pollution, but be able to

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take out the pollution or have mechanisms
like people, like Healthy Seas and their

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partnerships to be able to come in and
take out all that pollution, the nets, the

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boats, the cages, everything like that.

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And then being able to watch this
site, restore it and sometimes

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itself, or have somebody else come
in and restore it with sea grasses

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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

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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

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and for partnering with on this
video and letting me have access to

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their footage and their pictures.

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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

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because it's such an important aspect
of what we need to do and what we need

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to see, the people helping out, making
sure that these ecosystems are intact,

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they're restored, and they're cleaned up.

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It's something that's
very, very important.

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So that's it for today's episode.

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I want to thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode.

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If you have any questions or comments,
you can leave them in the comments

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00:14:25,790 --> 00:14:27,110
below in this YouTube video.

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00:14:27,110 --> 00:14:29,420
Or if you're listening to
this on your favorite podcast

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00:14:29,420 --> 00:14:30,290
app, you can just hit me up

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00:14:30,290 --> 00:14:34,520
on Instagram at how to protect the ocean
that's at how to protect the ocean.

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Or if you want to email me, you can do so.

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00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:40,280
Go speak up for blue.com/contact
and just fill out the form.

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It goes right to my personal email.

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I'd be happy to send you a message back.

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And I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode of the

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How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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I'm your host Andrew Lewin from the true
nor strong and free, have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time
and happy conservation.