Enaleia | Lefteris Arapakis | Greece
United Nations - Young Champion of the Earth - Europe
Lefteris Arapakis | Ocean Culture Life Interview
Lefteris Arapakis, a 26-year old Greek activist, is the Co-founder & Manager of Enaleia - the first school for professional fishing in Greece and a wide-scale plastic clean up initiative.
Lefteris graduated from Athens University of Economics and Business, is a TEDx lecturer and an Ashoka Changemaker. For five generations his family has fished in the bountiful waters off southern Greece, netting the same cod and red mulls that have sustained the population for millennia. But in recent years, overfishing and pollution have hammered Greece's fisheries, with catches in the Mediterranean Sea falling as much as 34 per cent in the last 50 years.
Enaleia
(Greek for ‘together with the fishermen’)
Inspired by Greece’s climate and economic crisis in 2017 Lefteris co-founded ENALEIA, a social startup that teaches sustainable fishing and battles plastic pollution. It is the first school for professional fishermen anywhere in the country.
“We teach our students not just how to fish, but also how to fish so fish can exist tomorrow”
Enaleia teaches fishing practices that preserve local fish populations and remove the mounds of plastic waste that pollute the world’s seas, adapting the fishing industry for a green future. After witnessing Greek fishermen pulling up tons of plastics in their nets along with fish — and then inexplicably throwing the plastic back into the sea — Lefteris set out to help solve this problem, which has devastated sealife across the globe.
While Enaleia currently operates only in the Mediterranean, Lefteris' ultimate goal is to expand the program worldwide.
The Mediterranean CleanUp
To tackle the pollution problem in the Mediterranean Sea, Arapakis and his team at Enaleia launched The Mediterranean Cleanup. They now work with 700 people on 145 boats from Greece and Italy and give a monetary reward for the plastic they return to shore. This removes around 12 tonnes of plastic from the sea each month.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
“We contribute to the circular economy while doing both the cleaning and the management of this marine litter. Specifically, we send the plastic bottles to a fashion company in Madrid which turns them into clothes while the nets we clean from the sea we send to the environmental organization Healthy Seas, which turns these nets into useful products such as swimwear and socks. This reduces the amount of plastic and CO2 emissions produced to create new products and thus the power of the message we want to convey is multiplied.”
Impacts on Local fishing communities:
It reduces poverty by providing an alternative income for these small-scale fishermen, through the stipend they receive for the plastic they haul;
It will enhance the water condition in these locations, which can create a boost in ecotourism;
In addition, the “fishing fields” will become plastic free and the ecosystem restored, leading to an increase of fish stocks over the years and therefore a sustainable increase in income for these fishermen long-term;
ACTION IN NUMBERS
The fishing season October 2020 - May 2021
Locations - Lavrio, Nea Michaniona, Nea Moudania, Chalkida, Kymi, Patras, Kyllini, Lefkada, Corfu, Chania, Agios Nikolaos, and Rimini (Italy).
145 Fishing Boats
10,000kg of Marine Litter Removed
20,000kg Fishing Nets
(due to be collected as part of pollution prevention)
Fishing School
IMPACT OVER THREE YEARS
Extra income was created for 750 professional fishers.
270 professional fishermen have been trained in sustainable fishing techniques.
114 unemployed people were trained in professional fishing.
The Enaleia course includes; Ichthyology, Aquatic Environment Sustainability, Fisheries Legislation, Fisheries Technology, Economics in Fisheries and Medium / Coastal Fisheries.
REGISTER NOW VIA THE ENALEIA WEBSITE
Find out everything you need to know about professional fishing. Complete the courses and receive the certificate of attendance.
Learn about professional fishing at your own pace
Whether you are a student or an amateur fisherman, here you can learn everything you need to do for professional fishing by attending online courses at your own pace.
Obtain the certificate of completion
Successfully attend the 5 courses and obtain the certificate of successful completion.
Work with a professional fisherman
Complete the courses successfully and you will practice your knowledge next to a professional fisherman.
THE TEAM
LEFTERIS ARAPAKIS
Co-founder & Manager
NIKOS THERAPOS
Legal & Finance
GIORGOS ANTONIOU
Michaniona Port Representative
ZETA KAMPARDI
Project Manager
Websites - enaleia.com / learntofish.gr / mediterraneancleanup.com
Instagram - @enaleia / @mediterranean_cleanup
