IN THE PROJECT “ADOPT A BEACH” – ADOPT A BEACH “CLEANSED BLACK BEACH (BLATNA PLAŽA) IN IGALO –

IN THE PROJECT “ADOPT A BEACH” – ADOPT A BEACH “CLEANSED BLACK BEACH (BLATNA PLAŽA) IN IGALO –

Within the pilot project “Adopt a Beach”, which is implemented by the Public Enterprise for the Management of the Marine Region within the UNEP MARINE LITTER project funded by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), on Planet Earth Day – April 22, beach cleaning action on the Montenegrin coast. The third in a series of beach cleaning actions, which includes the categorization of waste, assessment of the quantity, type and number of waste on the beaches, in accordance with the methodology UNEP / MAP and MEDPOL protocol, was organized by the Institute for Marine Biology, which was engaged by the Public Enterprise for Marine Management good.

The cleaning action was carried out on pre-defined transects on the Blatna plaza in the Municipality of Herceg Novi and on the beach Jaz in the Municipality of Budva. In addition to the associates of the Institute for Marine Biology and the Public Enterprise for Maritime Management, volunteers joined the campaign, followed by students from the seventh grade of Ilija Kišić from Zelenika as well as the NGO “Fit Woman Montenegro” from Herceg Novi and “Montenegrin Society of Ecologists” from Podgorica. In addition to regular monitoring of the state of waste on beaches and defining the sources of pollution, the aim of the action is to raise awareness among young people, to educate on the impact of the pollution of the coast and the sea and the ways of its prevention.

The waste is collected in the field by categories: plastics, metal, textiles, rubber, glass, paper, medical waste, treated wood. Detailed categorization, analysis and waste treatment will be carried out at the Institute of Marine Biology. A larger amount of waste was collected on the Blatna plaza, where a considerable quantity of natural wood was found, while the dominant waste on both beaches is plastic.

Previous research has found that plastics waste is dominant on all Montenegrin beaches with an overall share of up to 80%, with the dominant waste being cigarette packets, chips and sweeps, plastic bottles and plugs, plastic bags, straws, sticks and plastic parts, and styrofoam size 2.5-50 cm.

Due to the fact that the pollution of different types of waste is not harmful, not only to people, but to the entire marine ecosystem and coastal region, and consequently to the tourist image of Montenegro, within the same project, the Management Plan is being drafted, which will propose measures of prevention, protection and improving the status of Montenegrin beaches and coastal ecosystems.