KIMO launched two new ventures at Scotland’s International Marine Conference which took place at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow from 20-21 February 2019. This high profile event was opened by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and attended by academics, experts and industry representatives working towards healthy and sustainable seas in Scotland and beyond. As such the event was the perfect platform to spread the word about the following exciting new developments
Fishing for Litter Hub
Fishing for Litter started as a single pilot project in the Netherlands and has since expanded across Europe. It has shown itself to be one of the most effective interventions for removing marine litter from our seas. As such, both OSPAR and the European Commission encourage further expansion of the scheme. KIMO has identified a number of problems faced by existing Fishing for Litter projects and has investigated the barriers to entry for new Fishing for Litter schemes. Although projects are financed and administered separately, many of the challenges are common to all the projects.
Seeing the need for a centralised resource for the Fishing for Litter community, KIMO has launched the Fishing for Litter Hub. The Hub provides a forum for sharing knowledge, disseminating best practice, collaborating on research and leveraging economies of scale. More details about the Hub will be shared at the MARLICE 2019 Forum in Seville in April and the EU Maritime Day in Lisbon in May.
If you are interested in Fishing for Litter, already run a Fishing for Litter scheme or if you are thinking of setting up a Fishing for Litter project, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
Pitch In
The ‘Pitch In’ project is a collaboration between KIMO and Scottish Environmental NGO, Fidra. The purpose of the project is to reduce harmful microplastic emissions into the environment from artificial grass playing fields. The project name was chosen because it is essentially a call to all pitch owners, maintainers and users to ‘pitch in‘ to tackle the problem. It’s also a reminder that it’s better to keep the microplastics in the pitch (not in the soil or in the sea).
Together with Fidra, we have developed a community toolkit – essentially a set of resources to help schools and sports clubs reduce microplastics emissions from artificial pitches. The toolkit includes: targeted best practice guidelines for (a) pitch designers and procurement specialists, (b) pitch owners and maintainers and (c) pitch users; fun awareness-raising activities for schools; and an ‘individualised microplastic reduction plan’ generator. The entire toolkit will be available to download from the project website in March 2019. A pilot project at Kintore primary school is in the pipeline with plans to roll out further pilots over the next couple of months.
While we wait for the finishing touches to be made to the project website, the guidelines are available to download below: