Pitch

The project chosen by “We Sea” is “Sea Marvel”, an initiative with objectives related to dissemination and direct intervention activities regarding the risks of the marine ecosystem, the effects of plastic pollution, the invasion of alien species and the effects of climate changes focusing on selected Natura 2000 sites. The project is supported by a direct European funding of Italy-Malta cross-border collaboration and it is realized thanks to the cooperation between the Department of Agriculture of the University of Catania and the University of Malta. The choice of the project derives from an awakened sense of belonging to the territory in the “We Sea”’s members whose approach to the project was to verify its veracity investigating on it and to help its growth and its informative work.

It was thanks to the trip made to the University of Catania on 8th March and the following interview with the Italian project manager, prof. Iuri Peri, and his team that the We Sea discovered how the result of 0€ of monitored payments compared to a financing of 2104822.36€ (of which 89% came from the EU) were actually causated by a problem in the OpenCoesione's platform that failed to updated the info of the project. Peri reassured the team that the payments amount to 30% (the data was verified by We Sea through an excel file of the payments made and estimated provided by Peri). He also informed us that the University of Malta has reached 100% of payments confirming the testimony of prof. Adriana Vella, the Maltese project manager, with whom we kept in contact via email throughout all the process.

"We Sea"'s work with "Sea Marvel" will not end with the end of the ASOC path. The team is planning to meet on a monthly basis, mainly on Meet calls, where the Monithon data and those collected by students through the publications related to the project will be analyzed, implementing those values ​​of civic sense and active citizenship that the project has given them the opportunity to cultivate, and personally acting when it is necessary. The monitoring and dissemination actions through social media by the various formats developed and field action  will continue thanks to the team members who in recent months have become a real group with a common ideal: the safeguard of the world around them.