Highlights from ACWS Naples - Sailors for the Sea

Highlights from ACWS Naples

 April 14, 2012  | By: Oceana

Naples is not known for it’s cleanliness, but it’s still been a surprise for us to see the degree to which plastic and waste here is simply left on the streets and blown into the bay. The America’s Cup Healthy Ocean Project forum held here yesterday highlighted some of these local problems, while also emphasizing the importance of solutions like Clean Regattas and Marine Protected Areas:

Carl Gustaf Lundin, IUCN’s Head of Global Marine and Polar Programme, discusses the importance of Clean Regattas during the ACWS Naples Healthy Ocean Forum (apologies for the poor video quality).

But the America’s Cup organizers have done their best to leave the event site better than they found it, cleaning over 1000 gallons of trash from the shore next to the race compound, including large items like tires and refrigerators.

New local environments always present new challenges as the ACWS moves between venues, but it’s been encouraging for us to see that many parts of the Clean Regattas process have become fully incorporated into event’s internal procedures. Be it in Naples or Newport, organizers continue to look for new ways to reduce their impact locally and promote ocean health. Here in Naples, we are working with the AC to test out a new, more comprehensive set of Best Practices. We hope these will provide a more robust, but still achievable, process for our regattas.