Translated by Assaad Maalouf
East Mediterranean Tara has reached Beirut Marina in the frame of its tour across towns and cities stretching their shores along the Mediterranean Sea.
Tara’s trip has started since May, 2014, and will continue till November 2014 to visit France, Italy, Albania, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Tunisia, Algeria, Spain, and Morocco, with the scientific purpose of pinpointing environmental challenges relevant to the sea. It is worth mentioning that Pierre and Marie Curie University in France, in association with the University of Michigan in the USA and the French National Institute for Scientific Research, is carrying out the scientific survey.
The trip aims to find active solutions to issues related to water purification, wastes management, tourism enhancement, natural sea protectorates establishment, and plastic pollution survey in the Mediterranean.
Solidere’s director general, Munir Dweidi, told the National News Agency he was proud of Tara’s arrival in Beirut, especially that the ship bears environmental purposes to examine the rate of water pollution -- a study by Solidere which aims at presenting Beirut at the world map of concern.
The ship’s secretary general said the aim of Tara was to study the presence of plastic materials in the Mediterranean which was suffering due to its nearing large cities and the movement of ships across the Sweis Channel and the Strait of Gibraltar.
The chairperson of Big Blue Association, Iffat Idriss, saw Tara as important enough for recycling solid wastes, especially that Lebanon suffers a big problem in this regard. She explained that it was significant to remove solids such as plastic from the sea since such material can -- in its disintegration within the sea -- go into the stomach of fish and harm them. She thereby
stressed the importance of cooperation between her association and Tara.
Lebanese student Anthony Opa highlighted the scope of benefit that could be acquired from Tara as concerning setting environmental treatments and solutions.
Tara will stay in Beirut from August 5, 2014, till August 12, during which it will hold expos for students and others to get to learn about its environmental duties.
