Similar to previous events in Ukraine and Russian Federation, the Black Sea Clean Beach Day took place in Batumi on 30 October. “No waste – just fish!! was a motto of this action, which included:

  • Educational activities: biological indication of the Black Sea status (so called environmental sentinels);

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  • Conservational activities: cleaning up of the beach and fish stocking (1,000 of Red book brown trout, famous for its transformation from fresh water fish into marine Black Sea salmon were released into the river);

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  • Divers’ games: marine litter was extracted by a team of divers to support an establishment of future marine natural reserve.

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The event was organized jointly with children living at sea coast (more than 60 children took part in the event).

The project had honored guests participating in the events: Minister of Environment and Protection of Natural Resources of Georgia Mr. Aqulashvili and Deputy Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine Mr. Kuzio as well as Head of National Environmental Agency of Georgia Mrs. Bagratia. Meeting of high-level representatives of the Ministries was successfully used to discuss how to reinforce cooperation in the framework of the Eastern Partnership and implementation of Association Agreements with the EU following the decisions of Declaration of Environmental Protection Ministers of the Eastern partnership countries.

On 31 October commemorating the 20th anniversary of the signature of the Black Sea Strategic Action, a special side event included official transfer of the metal sculpture of Black Sea mollusc “Angel’s wing” from Ukraine to Georgia. The mollusc is one of the ecological sentinels as it reacts rapidly on the pollution of the Black Sea, mostly by nutrients. This sculpture is made of two shells / “wings”, which were presented to the city of Batumi; the identical sculpture is to be placed in Odesa. Its installation symbolises joint efforts of Ukraine and Georgia to protect the Black Sea.

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As a part of the above events the project presented its activities on analysing the marine water samples within the Joint Black Sea surveys. It is expected it will be an important scientific milestone in the field of Black Sea Environmental Monitoring.

In the same time the project joined the celebration of the 85 anniversary of the Black Sea monitoring Centre (Batumi), and would like to wish further scientific and personal achievements to the team of the centre!