An intense morning, full of emotions, discoveries, and unfortunately, some alarming signals. That’s the takeaway from the first environmental monitoring outing of the Adriatic Conservancy project, which brought together over 100 students from the G. Marconi Scientific High School in Pesaro along the Fiorenzuola di Focara beach, in the heart of the Monte San Bartolo Natural Park.
Accompanied by teachers, biologists, and environmental educators, the students took part in a true field investigation, armed with gloves, bags, smartphones, and a great desire to help protect their local environment. Split into small groups, they monitored and cleaned a long stretch of beach, cataloging every piece of waste using the Clean Swell app and following the MAC Emerso protocol by Reef Check Italia.
1,200 Fishing Nets: The Hidden Face of Pollution
The most shocking finding of the day was undoubtedly the huge number of abandoned fishing nets: over 1,200 pieces were collected in just a few hours from a single stretch of coastline. This number alone highlights a severe emergency—sadly not new but too often overlooked. Some nets were entire, others fragmented and tangled among rocks, half-buried in sand, or trapped in the vegetation.
This isn’t just a matter of aesthetics or beach cleanliness. Though they may seem inert, these nets are real death traps for marine wildlife. They entangle fish, turtles, and dolphins; they damage the seabed and release microplastics into the environment. During the activity, the students found the remains of a dolphin and a sea turtle washed ashore. The causes of death are unknown, but it’s hard not to link such occurrences to the pervasive presence of plastic and waste in the sea.
A Morning to Remember
For the students, it was a powerful and sometimes moving experience. Many did not expect to find so much trash in what seemed to be a pristine area. and to find themselves in front of two iconic beached animals such as the sea turtle and the dolphin. Others proudly shared their efforts, happy to have done something meaningful. They learned to read the beach with new eyes, to recognize marine species, and to engage with real data.
For one day, science stepped out of the classroom and became a living, hands-on, and participatory experience. And that’s exactly what the Adriatic Conservancy project is all about: learning through doing, discovering in order to protect, involving young people to spark real change.
A Clear Message to Institutions
What we saw in Fiorenzuola is not an isolated case. The issue of abandoned fishing nets affects the entire Adriatic coast, as confirmed by years of data collected by environmental groups and citizen scientists. We can no longer afford to look the other way.
We are calling on the authorities to act now, responding to the invitation of environmental organizations to set up a technical roundtable that brings together fishermen, environmentalists, researchers, and local administrations to find real, shared solutions.
In the meantime, the project continues. Two more field outings with students from Liceo Scientifico G. Marconi and Istituto Agrario A. Cecchi are already planned. The data collected will be presented at a public conference hosted by Subtridente in Pesaro, where the students themselves will share what they’ve learned and discuss their findings directly with scientists.
Because the sea belongs to everyone. And only together can we save it.
