The Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival has featured a film about marine pollution, produced with the support of a foundation linked to the Laskaridis shipping family.
Major players in global shipping, the Laskaridis brothers are known in Greece for their initiatives to clean the seas of rubbish and scrap single-use plastics.
The documentary, Fishing for Litter, looks at one such initiative, yet in May 2021 BIRN revealed that inspectors in October 2019 registered 11 violations on one of the Laskaridis ships, a reefer called Avunda, after it had spent a month in the protected waters of Antarctica, including concerns over its air pollution certificate and oil filtering equipment.
The following year, Greenpeace flagged the Avunda in a report detailing the dangers reefers pose to the highly sensitive waters of Antarctica. Reefers have a high failure rate in port inspections and dominate so-called transhipping, the practice of transferring a catch from one vessel to another, usually from a fishing ship to a reefer. The practice is closely monitored in port, but not so much far offshore, where illegal catches can be concealed.
The Laskaridis brothers deny having anything to do with illegal cargo and say the faults found by inspectors are minor and quickly rectified.
The documentary, made by well-known Greek journalist Sotiris Danezis with the support of the Athanasios C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation, follows four fishermen who, besides catching fish, seek out plastic bottles and rubbish on the seabed.
“If we fish now from the Dardanelles to Piraeus, we will catch two fish, 10 barrels, a hundred bottles, and a thousand bits of garbage,” a fisherman from Kavala called Dimitris says in the film. Together, the four men retrieved 2.5 tons of litter from the sea last year.
They are among 40 fishermen collaborating with the foundation in the Fishing for Litter project, the aim of which, according to the foundation’s website, is to reduce marine litter with the participation of the fishing community.
The fishermen recorded their finds and manage its disposal in an environmentally friendly manner, while scientists analyse the findings and seek out solutions.
At an event on Sunday during the film festival, the foundation’s director, Dr Angeliki Kosmopoulou said the foundation wished to raise awareness within the fishing industry and encourage it to change its waste management practices.
“This film helps us talk about the most invisible part of marine pollution,” said Kosmopoulou. “Through the very beautiful images of Sotiris and this programme, the problem is highlighted in the best possible way.”
Contacted by BIRN, Danezis declined to comment.
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