Hi David,
Part of the work of the Asociacion Amigos del Mar is raising awareness on issues to do with the health of the oceans and in particular the sea conservation and health issues in this area.
We like to do this through an edutainment approach so that people can have fun while becoming ‘guardians of the sea’. This month we are putting on a special event to combat beach pollution here.
On 26th July there will be a special effort to clean up the cigarette butts on the beach in certain locations along the main beach. These five locations are based around some of the best known chiringuitos and bars in this lovely bay.
They are Chambao de Vicente, La Cupula, El Bueno. El Bambu with the main information stand, Rebalaje and Chambao de Joaquin. This event takes place from 11.00 to 14.00. So come along and see how many cigarette butts it takes to get a free drink.
Not everyone knows the significantly poisonous effect of cigarette butts, known in Spanish as colillas, once they enter the sea. We really want to eliminate this source of pollution here as an example to other seaside communities.
Next year we aim to have special information boards and attached receptacles available for smokers to use to put their colillas into and hopefully have a clean beach by the end of the summer.
This event is being led by Vicky Schrave, sister to Manuela whose fight against the mussel farming appeared in last month’s edition, two staunch members of Amigos del Mar. It’s great to see two young women taking leadership initiatives.
The organizing committee of AADM for this year’s festival are busy setting up other exciting events for the festival in advance. One of these is the rap training for the Rap Competition that will be one of the highlights of the festival. The first session took place on July 8th and the second happened on July 23rd.
The training was carried out by local rapper Filler and the competition is open to adults and children. These were great opportunities to learn how to rap as well as get ideas on the rap you can develop for the big competition during the Festival del Mar in October.
There is another exciting competition that will run throughout the summer with plenty of time for preparation for the festival. It’s called Creating a Reef.
We want everyone with a creative mind to think of making a sea creature out of colorful knitting, crochet, material, paper or a combination of these. These reef creatures can be made out of imagination or from looking at what is under the sea online.
We have an amazing selection of fish here of all colors and sizes as well as the stunning nudibranchs, star fish, octopus, sea urchins and coral etc. For ideas go to TED.com and select “knitting a reef”.
There are three age categories in this competition and they are -under 30, 31-59 and 60+ and there are no gender barriers. The first prize in each category is 50 euros. The finished articles will be displayed in a reef in the Centro Civico during the first week in October and we hope to grow this reef into a tourist attraction.
Entries need to be ready for mid September for judging. Please contact Mel on melogo@gmail.com