Glass bottles, cans, plastics, fishing gear (nets, fishing rods, lines…), sunglasses… The least we can say is that the fishing was fruitful for the first NSA, (for » Arcachon Underwater Cleanup « ) organized on Sunday by the CPA (Arcachon diving club, chaired by Catherine Dumortier).
It had been more than a year that Marine Loiseau, Jean-Christophe Scherding, and Olivier Linardon, members of the club, had been preparing this event aimed at raising public awareness about underwater environment preservation in close partnership with the city of Arcachon. On Sunday, October 6, the first divers began to set up very early under the tent pitched in front of the carousel on the Eyrac pier, which also hosted a very beautiful exhibition of underwater photos taken at night by Frédéric Lamothe.
After a welcome by the mayor of Arcachon Yves Foulon and the briefing conducted by the organizers, 130 divers entered the water from Arcachon’s main beach (between the Thiers and Eyrac piers) with, for each pair, a jute bag to collect debris lying at the bottom. Meanwhile, 40 other divers were deployed at three other well-known sites in the Arcachon basin: the Blockhouses (with the Océana diving center), Hortense at Cap Ferret (with the Cestas club) and Saint-Yves (with the diving club of La Teste-de-Buch). « It’s a very big victory for us« , declared Olivier Linardon after the launch, « until last night we didn’t think we would have so many divers mobilized. While the majority of the 170 divers come from the Bordeaux region, there are also people who came from Cahors, Mimizan, Poitiers, and to thank them they will have the opportunity to take a second dive to discover a site in the basin during their visit. »
The divers’ exit from the water was followed by many locals, tourists, and other Sunday strollers, all shocked to see what was coming out of the bags. « In total, we filled one and a half dumpsters with debris; we hope this will help educate the general public to stop using single-use plastic for beach picnics and encourage regional clubs to always dive with bags to enable everyone to contribute to cleaning the seabed« , concluded Olivier.
At the end of the day, the CPA was also able to hand over €500 to SNSM (the national sea rescue society) thanks to the sale of eco-friendly fruit juices organized by one of the local partners of the event, Caraïbos. The SNSM held a stand all day on site and was in charge of diving supervision with the gendarmerie.
This first « NSA », a true event bringing together the region’s diving clubs and centers, should be renewed next year, we’ll keep you informed of the next date very soon.
Sandrine Leveugle-Souan
