Mediterranea: expedition in Istanbul after 6 months at sea
(ANSAmed) - ROME, DECEMBER 3 - The scientific and cultural Italian expedition ''Progetto Mediterranea'', which left San Benedetto del Tronto on May 17, reached Istanbul on Wednesday after sailing for over six months across 2,750 nautical miles, touching 20 ports in Italian, Greek and Turkish waters.
During the expedition, the sailboat Mediterranea symbolically occupied an island - Meganissi - and a beach - Elafonissos - to denounce the privatization of the Greek coast.
In Athens, the first stopover of this cultural journey, the Mediterranea crew met and interviewed 20 leading Greek intellectuals while during the short leg of the Italian trip it had already interviewed writers Gianluza Solera, Nicolò Carnimeo and researchers and oceanographers Nadia Pinardi and Cristina Fossi.
Along the route, the equipage of Mediterranea also carried out scientific searches with 40 samples of plankton for British scientific foundation Sahfos (Plymouth), 14 jellyfish sightings as part of the project Watch for Jellies with the University of Salento - daily validating the Forecast Sea Conditions of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on climate Change (CMCC). Moreover, the expedition collected microplastics debris, hosting onboard researchers from the University of Siena.
During navigation, Mediterranea produced all the energy needed on board through its solar and wind system.
At the end of March - after a stopover in Istanbul for maintenance work and the second part of the cultural project (February 15 - March 25) to be presented shortly - Mediterranean will sail off beyond the Bosphorus around the Black Sea and then back to the Aegean to sail along the Greek-Turkish border, the Dodecanese and Crete.
Project Mediterranea, which takes place under the patronage of several institutions, including the president of the Italian Republic, and has won many recognitions, is the first worldwide example of co-sailing, an initiative supported thanks to the work and financial contribution of 44 people, the ''Mediterranei'', whose profiles have been posted to the official website of the expedition www.progettomediterranea.com.(ANSAmed).
