Every year, for thirty years, the Sailaway sailing association of the NEOMA Business School in Rouen (Seine-Maritime) has participated in one of the largest European regattas for students, EDHEC.
It also allows a group to go on a cruise in the Mediterranean for a week at a lower cost.
But the crisis has struck.
All of these events have been canceled.
Only, the students did not want to stop there!
Twelve of them left for Brittany for “La Green”, a coasting trade from island to island in order to collect waste on the beaches.
"We are not activists"
For Florian Martin and his comrades, pollution is an obvious concern: “We don't need to be Cousteau to be sensitive to the protection of our environment and especially the sea. Without being activists, there was something to do.
We have opted for an operation to clean up the marine environment.
So, on a 12.5-meter sailboat and another of 10 meters, with the voluntary support of two skippers, the sailors set off from Arzon (Morbihan).
By lifting the algae, the finding is alarming.
© Sailaways Frederic DURANT
With an average of about fifty kilometers of navigation per day, they passed through Île-d'Houat, Île de Groix, Les Glénans, Lorient, Belle-Île-en-Mer and La Trinité-sur-Mer: “At each docking, we organize a cleanwalk. For several hours, we collect all the rubbish on the beaches. For example, in six hours on the Île de Groix, 10 garbage bags collected. We collect everything, but mainly pieces of netting, microplastics and, what is most surprising, astronomical quantities of cigarette butts. As if people take the beaches for ashtrays. They will be recycled by a Brest company. The rest is deposited in local waste collection centers, ”explains the student, by videoconference during a stopover.
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During their navigation, the Rouen crew encountered dolphins, sea birds and fish. “The sea is beautiful, let's preserve it! Our observation is alarming. There is waste everywhere. The worst part is lifting the algae. The plastic is embedded in the sand, ”continues Florian Martin. So, with two-minute videos shot every day and interviews with scientists, “we will offer other students and on social networks a film of awareness and popularization. Because, our message is that we are the future generation and together, we must be able to change things and the habits of our daily lives. It must be a collective effort. This is our way of raising the alarm ”. In the meantime, no time to stay in front of the camera.The wind is blowing and the young people of Rouen have left for a new cleaning mission.
