01-06-2010 par Sylvie BarransPositive results at the 3d European Maritime Day in Gijon

The European Maritime Days ended with a huge Hawaiian Ho'okupu held at San Lorenzo beach in Gijon, Thursday May 20th 2010. This ceremony, well known among surfers, is an Hawaiian ritual. Waters from all seas are poured into a bowl. Chapter heads from Greece, Portugal, Sweden, France, Netherlands and Germany shared water from their beach. Diego Lopez Garrido, the Spanish secretary for European affairs, came to the sunny ceremony, during which a macro-waste necklace was given to each member. A new way for SFE to put forward its petition "not on our beaches", against macro-waste. "TRASH KILLS": for the first time, Surfrider's new banner went into the ocean, blown by the strong Asturias wind and held by a dozen surfers.

More traditional actions were taken during this European Maritime Days. Our "Plea for our seas, oceans and their users" as well as our petition against macro-waste were handed officially to  Maria Damanaki, European Commissioner for the Maritime Affairs and  Fisheries and to Corinne Lepage, European deputy. Therefore, SFE claimed loud and clear a strong environmental message from beach & water users.

This European Maritime Day has also been an opportunity for SFE to officially launch the new "Sea Users' platform". This platform gathers sliding sports industries (with Olivier Cantet, head of Rip Curl International), several sliding sports associations (with Joao Zamith and Carlos Garcia representing the Portuguese and European surf associations), as well as sea and beach users (represented by SFE's members).

Surfrider Foundation's petition "not on our beaches", signed so far by 43.000 European citizens, was handed out to  Maria Damanaki, European Commissioner for the Maritime Affairs and  Fisheries and to Corinne Lesage, European deputy. The short ceremony was held inside the "Laboral", Gijon's monumental conference center. It could be interesting to underline that the same week, a new law was presented in Brussels before the European parliament. It aimed at classifying macro waste as pollution. Until now, macrowaste are only seen as visual nuisances. SFE has been fighting about this issue for years, considering that plastic bottles and soda cans should indeed be classified as pollutions.