CARTAGENA / Environment participates in a day of cleaning of underwater funds in Cabo de Palos to remove sport fishing lines

The General Director of Medio Medio, Consuelo Rosauro, participated this week in a day of cleaning of underwater funds in Cabo de Palos to remove pieces of lead used in sport fishing. This initiative is part of the ‘Plumbum’ project, which for the past year has been developing the Hippocampus association with the support of the Federation of Underwater Activities of the Region, the ‘Naranjito’ diving center of Cabo de Palos and the General Directorate of Environment Natural.

During this first year of execution, more than a hundred divers have participated in this project, who have managed to extract 585.7 kilograms of lead from the regional coastal funds, most of them coming from the pieces used for sport fishing.

In this time, in addition, more than 60 diving clubs and other entities that collaborate with the project have installed containers and points for the collection of these elements in which any diver can deposit those leads found during a dive.

These elements are removed from the containers by members of the Hippocampus association and transferred to the facilities of a collaborating company, Mahe, for its treatment and subsequent recycling.

The general director of Medio Medio highlighted the importance of this type of initiative and the involvement of both the members of the association «as well as the divers who, individually, participate in collecting the waste they encounter during their dives».

«The maintenance and cleaning of natural areas is one of our objectives, and for this we have both the work of the cleaning brigades and the involvement of divers from the region, who with a small gesture can help maintain and preserve the natural wealth of the Region, «said Rosauro.

The general director of Medio Medio also highlighted the double benefit generated by this project, since it contributes to the removal of a toxic material such as lead from the seabed «while allowing it to be recovered and used again as a raw material».

Thus, and after processing, the lead removed from the seabed is reused, for example, for the production of radiography plates or car batteries. The money obtained from the sale of the lead, in addition, is reinvested in new actions both in the framework of the ‘Plumbum’ project and in other actions of conservation of the horse of the Mar Menor in which the association participates.