Greece’s “Fishing for Litter” program has removed 360 metric tons of marine waste from the country’s waters since October 2019, according to environmental organization iSea. The effort has also recorded 514,798 pieces of debris collected by fishing crews and now operates through 25 ports across Greece.
The program relies mainly on bottom-trawl fishers who recover waste caught in their nets during normal fishing operations. Crews bring the debris back to port instead of returning it to the sea, allowing researchers to document the type, quantity, and location of litter found on the seabed.
The latest figures reflect years of expanding participation rather than a single cleanup operation. Earlier reports showed cumulative totals rising from more than 75 metric tons in 2022 to 186 metric tons by 2024 and more than 277 metric tons by the end of 2025.
Greece’s “Fishing for Litter” program tracks a growing seabed waste problem
Recent findings have also drawn attention to pollution linked to fishing activity itself. This month, iSea reported that participating crews had recovered 6,278 concrete blocks and about 11,700 synthetic ropes since the program began.
The materials are associated with some purse-seine fishing operations, where concrete blocks and polypropylene ropes can be used with floating light devices that help attract fish at night. iSea reported that ropes may be cut during retrieval, leaving both the rope and concrete blocks on the seabed.
The organization identified the Euboean Gulf as the area with the most serious concentration of the problem, followed by the Thracian Sea and Thermaic Gulf. Similar waste had appeared in program records as early as 2019 and 2020.
Plastic remains the most common waste by item count
The project’s 2025 report found that plastic accounted for 83% of recorded objects collected that year, although it represented 53% of recovered waste by weight. Plastic bags and bottles were among the most frequently recorded items.
Abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear accounted for 25% of the items documented in the 2025 dataset. Earlier research in the Thracian Sea also identified plastic octopus pots, purse-seine ropes and cement blocks among the most common forms of fishing-related debris.
The Fishing for Litter program has expanded steadily across the Aegean, Ionian and Cretan seas. During 2025 alone, participating vessels reported removing about 91.5 metric tons of waste while completing more than 8,400 fishing trips.
iSea says the records also contribute to broader monitoring of marine litter under European environmental policies. The 360-metric-ton figure represents waste actually recovered and documented by participating vessels, not an estimate of the total amount of debris lying on Greece’s seabed.
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