FESTA DEL PESCE | FISH FESTIVAL

On the 29^th of September PROJECT MARE went to Festa del Pesce in Positano to represent the MPA and give a hand to party staff.

Spiaggia di Fornillo was crowded and preparations started three days prior to the event. We met a great part of the amazing staff members, amazing people with picturesque life stories, such as Claudia Irace and Daniele.

We assisted them in assembling the recycling trash bins. Hundreds of people were expected to attend so we had to make sure all the beach was covered with them. It took 4 people and one hour and a half to do it. For our great displeasure, people do not care to use them properly regardless of the fact that each bin had different colors and symbols as explicit instruction for recycling. In part due to this, this year the party’s organization decided to invest heavily in biodegradable cutlery and dishes. Last but not the least, as we were spreading the word on the main activities and goals of the MPA and on the importance of Posidonia oceanica, although having good reactions of the public in general, a group of local youngsters replied negatively to our teams intent to promote awareness. They expressed such disinterest in our strategies of conservation that one of the young locals threatened we would find our info flyers in the sea if we gave him one. Crazy stuff! For us this is utterly demotivating: the complete blindness and unawareness of people plus the lack of interest and the feeling of unimportance from young locals towards the environment that greatly influences their daily life circumstances.  But we don’t quit. We keep smiling, resilient, aware and focused on the good imprint we want to leave. As much as we can, we try to reach out to everyone. We kept focused on our mission throughout the evening, we ate crazily good food, we laughed, we had fun and for sure we came up with better ideas and different strategies to persuade people to have a more environmental friendly attitude for the next party.

That’s it folks!