Divers brought hundreds of kilograms of trash out of water in a few hours during the Project AWARE last Saturday

On Saturday, 14 September , Wärtsilä volunteers organised local clean-up events in Helsinki, Finland and Hamburg, Germany. Bringing together tens of volunteers, the events managed to collect hundreds of kilograms of trash from the waters while increasing awareness of the growing need for ocean protection.

The Helsinki event took place in Kaivopuisto and the Hamburg event in Hamburg-Uhlenhorst. The central locations attracted a lot of interested passers-byes from children to elders, interested to see what the event was about. This is crucial as the purpose of the event is to raise the awareness of people about the condition of our seas. For several hours’ divers collected trash from the bottom of the sea and were supported by volunteers onshore. Among the surprising finds: one very heavy construction fence post, a table set complete with four chairs, several city bikes and six different tires were found in the waters.

The local Project AWARE activities, initiated by Wärtsilians Mauro Sacchi and Harri Mäkelä five years ago, have engaged over 100 volunteers and have collected more than 1 ton of garbage. The volunteer team has created strong co-operation with the City of Helsinki and the local diving community. This year, Wärtsilians expanded their clean-up activities to Germany with the first Project AWARE event organized in Hamburg. Building on the successful Hamburg launch, they plan to expand the project to five new locations next year.

“Project AWARE works with scuba divers across the globe to protect underwater environments. Since its establishment in 1989, the community has grown to become a worldwide network of over 180,000 divers. To date, the volunteers have removed worldwide over one million pieces of trash from the ocean”, says Mauro Sacchi. “Project AWARE connects the passion for ocean adventure with the purpose of marine conservation to create lasting change.”

“This was the first time we organised a Project AWARE event in Hamburg and managed to gather an enthusiastic group of volunteers to work both in the water and on land”, explains Wärtsilian Kerstin Krüger . She was in charge of organising the local event together with Kerstin Ernst and Kristin Lange. “This was really an inspiring community event and we are looking forward to continuing our efforts for the environment with similar activities,” Kerstin says on behalf of the whole team.

More information about Project AWARE: https://www.projectaware.org/

Wärtsilä has been supporting the work for cleaner oceans through several projects

Project Baseline
Also organised by volunteer divers with the support of researchers and companies like Wärtsilä, Project Baseline aims to measure and document different parameters of the marine environment. Drawing on the tradition of citizen science, it seeks to establish a firm baseline of data against which environmental degradation can be objectively measured. The measurements are shared with the community and researchers to facilitate data-driven discussion and policy about the condition of the seas. Project Baseline was established in 2009 and Wärtsilä has been a sponsor since 2018.

Tapio Lehtinen
Tapio Lehtinen, Finnish Circumnavigator, raced in the Golden Globe Race (GGR) starting from 2018. This spring, he reached the final port, becoming one of only five people ever able to reach the finish line of the rough competition. Wärtsilä partnered Tapio’s journey, and Tapio reported what he saw in the oceans of the world.

Sea20 and Oceanic Awakening
SEA20 is a league of cities working under the common aim of creating new innovative and smart ways to build a sustainable future for making business across our oceans. SEA20 connects 20 smart and ecologically ambitious smart cities. Wärtsilä’s ‘An Oceanic Awakening’ is a global initiative focused on the radical transformation of the world’s marine and energy industries into a single supremely efficient, ecologically sound, and digitally connected ecosystem. Highlighting and proactively addressing issues related to rapid urban growth and climate change form the basis of Wärtsilä’s drive to activate a fully-integrated smart ecosystem. The initiative requires collaboration across multiple segments and industry verticals, as well as active involvement in leveraging emerging technologies to create new business opportunities and a more sustainable future.