CLEAN UP REVEALS ROMAN ARTEFACTS IN PORTUGAL
Last Saturday, September 15th, dive school ‘Divers Cove', based in Carvoeiro, Algarve, was amongst the many associations that took part in a global awareness-raising day, that saw coasts and sea beds around the world being cleared of debris and rubbish. During the morning's ongoings, they discovered two significant examples of Roman history, off the Western Algarve coastline.
In collaboration with Portimão-based diving school PortiSub, the event saw more than 100 volunteers come together, who from 09h00 until 14h00 jointly cleared over 200 kilos of rubbish from the seabed and cliff faces along the coastline.
As the first PADI-accredited dive school in the country, Divers Cove adopted their pilot project AWARE – Aquatic World Awareness, Responsibility and Education – which has since seen national adherence. It was Divers Cove's 15th year of being actively involved in the global event, after introducing the project in Portugal in 1993.
On Saturday morning the many participants gathered at Caneiros beach, including 22 staff and organisers, 70 scuba divers, some from a Spanish dive association, 12 free divers, 16 helpers and rubbish collectors and four boats.
Much to the divers' surprise, amongst the glass bottles, fishnets, hooks, nylon lines, and other undesirable objects that had found a resting place on the seabed, were two large Roman anchors, believed to be over 2000 years old. Portimão museum officials were immediatley informed and came to collected the items with delight.
It is thought the anchors will soon be put on display.
Stefan Bernhard Fend established Divers Cove in 1992. It became a full PADI-recognised institution in 1993, and over the years has trained hundreds of divers.
Ever year the school takes part in the global AWARE project, which every year sees an increasing number of participants.
He hopes that next year even more people will volunteer to help in the environmentally significant campaign.
"When we first introduced the project we were just a few foreigners taking part" Stefan re calls, "People stared at us as we went out diving and came back without fish but with armfuls of rubbish. People found it weird.
"Now the local communities all come out in force to help, and are much more environmentally conscious".
Stefan believes that, given the nature of the rubbish, coastline fishermen and anglers can be held accountable for a large part of the waste.
"These fishermen do not have any training or awareness courses", he explains, "all they need to do is pay for their licenses and they can go and fish. So maybe introducing a day's course on how to correctly dispose of their rubbish, or installing bins along the cliffs would help solve the issue".
Another cleaning intervention is being planned for locals in the winter.
The Portugal News