ARGOLICORAMA in Nea Kios
A collaborative effort to encourage fishers to follow models of sustainable and low-impact fishing at the Argolic Region.
Fishers successfully participated in Argolicorama programme for the first year in Nea Kios. The programme lasted for a week in May 2023 between 23 – 26/05 and 22 fishers participated with a lot of enthusiasm.
The Programme’s goal is to reduce the level of fishing during peak reproductive periods for marine species (April and May) offering direct benefits to populations and the wider marine ecosystem. Instead, fishers participated in a joint effort to conduct coastal, wetland and river clean-ups, participated in seminars on sustainable fishing and learnt about fishing tourism. The programme managed to cultivate an ethos of stewardship of marine resources among professional fishers through their involvement in the programme and associated activities.
Argolicorama is a joint programme funded by the Argolic Environment Foundation (AEF) and the Blue Marine Foundation (BMF)and is supported by the Cyclades Preservation Fund (CPF). It was inspired by the Amorgorama programme a bottom-up initiative launched by the fishers in Amorgos, Cyclades, in 2021, to protect their island by tackling overfishing and pollution, which is also supported by CPF and BMF. The Programme’s first phase of 2023 was Spetses and the second phase in Nea Kios with the collaboration of the Fishers Association “Agioi Apostoli”, fishers from Kiveri, Mili and Nea Kios.
The fishers through this environmental programme, went to the beaches, the wetland of Nea Kios, Erasinos river and the beach at Mili, to collect rubbish and clean the beautiful sceneries from plastics. In total around 60 big bags of litter were collected. The fishers found lots of plastics, old tires, broken buoys and abandoned fishing nets.
Under the framework of the programme a day was dedicated to the seminars on Thursday 18 May. The fishers learnt how to safely release sharks, and rays accidentally caught in their nets without harming the species, through an interactive training offered by the team of iSea. Fishers were delighted to learn about these methods and practices. They also had the chance to learn more about fishing tourism and how to acquire fishing tourism licences, from experts from the Cyclades Preservation Fund. The fishers of Nea Kios were very inspired and recognise the need for action. Discussion for adoption of more sustainable fishing methods weree done, through their Association. We are committed to support them on this.
Through the Argolicorama programme AEF empowers fishers in the Argolic Region to follow models of sustainable and low-impact fishing and inspire them to work together. We aim to raise the necessary funds through donations to support this initiative and continue participating in Argolicorama programme and allow for the underwater world to take a break for regeneration and for the species to live in a better environment!
Credits for the photos to Thanos Kazolias.
