Stelios Savvas
Mr. Stelios Savvas is one of the fishers that are part of the “Fishing for Litter” program that takes action in the Eastern Aegean. He’s 55 years old and he professionally started to be involved in fishing in 2000. He’s working in Symi, Kalymnos, Kos and Samos.
R: How many years have you worked as a fisheran? How did your occupation with fishing begin?
SS: We have been involved in medium fishing as a family since 2000 when we acquired our boat. But the main motivator, for me and my siblings, was our father, who was professionally engaged in other branches of fishing.
R: We would like you to describe us a day at sea!
SS: We usually start work early in the morning, knowing in advance the weather conditions and thus we also know in advance the day the ship will come to send our fish to the central market in Piraeus. If the weather is good the boat works 24 hours a day.
R: What differences do you notice regarding the amount of litter in the sea compared to the past?
SS: The biggest difference that I notice, both myself and most fishermen in our area, is that in the past there was a lot of litter but smaller, today we are picking up bigger pieces of litter and mainly plastic boats in our area from immigrants, which if not picked up, cover a large surface of the seabed and of course you can reflect on the harm it brings.
R: What is the strangest type of litter you have removed from the sea?
SS: I wouldn’t say strange, given the facts of our region. We have collected boats, naval mines, shells, and bomb remnants.
R: What does the sea and its protection mean to you?
SS: The sea for us, as for every fisherman, is our home.
R: We want and need it clean. With the fishing for litter program we were given the opportunity to show the world what is in the sea and that only we with our wind trawlers can retrieve. In our country there is also an area designated as Posidonia which, after all, only we with the wind trawlers respect.
SS: What is the message you would like to pass along the world?
R: Respect for the sea and respect for what we all want to enjoy. No trash in the sea from anyone.
iSea’s «Fishing For Litter» project is implemented for 6 years in a row, in lots of different areas in Greece, in collaboration with the A C Laskaridis Charitable Foundation. The ambassadors of this project, the professional fishers who actively support the effort of collecting and recording marine litter from the sea all over the country, talk about the nature of their job and share their experience and thoughts about the project.
We would like to thank all the fishers who cooperated with us, for a more effective implementation of the “Fishing For Litter” project and give a personal touch to this effort.