Attica Group 5th Environmental Initiative Lesvos, 6 & 7 May 2023 “Sailing Together” to protect our environment and seas

As part of our "SAILING TOGETHER" responsibility and sustainability programme, Attica Group has successfully completed the 5th of a series of initiatives aiming to clean the seabed of our islands and protect their marine life.

Following the preceding successful environmental initiatives in Naxos, Kos, Santorini and Paros, the destination to follow was Lesvos. There, our 62 employees with the support of 6 members of their families, along with 20 volunteers from Aegean Rebreath, worked with patience in an effort to carry out underwater and coastal cleaning of Panagiouda port and beach cleaning at the north of Panagiouda palm forest.

The initiative was embraced by the island Authorities and was carried out in cooperation with the Municipality of Mytilene, Panagiouda Village Authorities, the Mytilene Port Authority, the Municipal Port Fund of Lesvos, the Ephorate of Marine Antiquities and the University of the Aegean, Department of Oceanography and Marine Life Sciences.

We take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks and appreciation to Mr. Panagiotis Violatzis, who, among other, offered the use of his fishing boat to facilitate our work. It is worth mentioning that 4 Sudanese refugees being hosted at the nearby refugee structure voluntarily assisted our work.

In the course of the action, the volunteers collected and sorted out, from the seabed:

1,890 objects and 15 sacks of plastic and synthetic polymer objects, 69 wheels and tyres, 212 objects from textile, 589 metallic objects, 124 glass/ceramics, 21 paper/cardboard objects, 50 kg of nets and 1,000 kg of chemicals (oils/tar).

In addition to the above, on Sunday, 7th May, a sampling was carried out to detect and collect microplastics from Chryssi Ammos beach.

The aim of these actions is to instil volunteerism and cooperation among our employees and raise awareness within the local communities on issues such as environmental protection, circular economy and sustainable development.

Attica Group is engaged in passenger shipping through SUPERFAST FERRIES, BLUE STAR FERRIES, HELLENIC SEAWAYS and AFRICA MOROCCO LINK operating 35 vessels providing modern, high-quality transportation services in Greece and abroad. Attica’s vessels serve 61 unique destinations in 4 countries, connecting 79 ports transporting over 6 million passengers, 1 million passenger vehicles and 500,000 trucks every year.

Kallithea, 19 June 2023