Swan Hellenic played an active role at a high-profile event forming part of the Ocean Race Grand Finale celebrations in Genoa, Italy, on Monday.
Organised by the European Commission and Genoa City Council, the event launched ‘The Shared Transition Plan of Mayors: a best practice for the Mission “Restore our Ocean & Waters by 2030’.
Designed to raise awareness of the Mission, the programme featured contributions by EU Parliamentarians, Italian Government Ministers and Mayors from across Italy and Spain.
Speaking in the panel discussion, Swan Hellenic CEO, Andrea Zito, described Swan Hellenic’s actions for ocean health as an example of how the shipping sector can support the implementation of Mission Ocean and Waters.
Zito said that the company has been committed to conserving the rarely accessed seas that its guests explore. So it has dedicated investments in the latest technologies to ensure its fleet of three boutique expedition ships has the low emissions and environmental footprint.
“But we have also gone further,” he added. “We’ve partnered with numerous Citizen Science initiatives, enabling our onboard experts and guests to contribute valuable conservation data. This ranges from reporting cloud data with NASA and recording whale sightings with Happywhale, to monitoring phytoplankton with the Secchi Disk Study and Antarctic seabird numbers with Stony Brook University.
“Now we’ve taken another important step that is the core of our commitment to Mission Ocean and Waters, offering our ships as data collection and research platforms in remote seas, initially through our partnership with the Fundacion Philippe Cousteau and Sustainable Development Goals for the Mediterranean. The first initiative will be measuring and monitoring microplastic and heavy metal distributions, with more to come.”
The Ocean Summit ending the Genoa Process will take place tomorrow, Tuesday 27 June 2023, leading to the draft principles of the Declaration of Ocean Rights that will be presented to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2023.
Featured Image: SH Vega at Charlotte Bay (Swan Hellenic)
