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Guardians of the Coast: 5,700 Students Involved and 2,610 KM of Coastline Adopted Thanks to the Costa Crociere Foundation Project

In only its first year ofoperation, the Guardians of the Coast project has become one of the biggestcitizen science projects in Italy, with over 50,000 useful reports collectedalong the Italian coast involving teachers and students from 156 secondary schools. The initiative raises awareness among youngpeople about the beauty and fragility of our coasts, which are threatened bypollution, particularly plastic waste, which accounts for around 68% of thebeached waste recorded by the "guardians".

Genoa, October 18,2018 –Results presented from the first year of operation of Guardians of theCoast,one of the biggest citizen scienceprojects in Italy, promoted by the CostaCrociere Foundation. The initiative actively involved 156 secondary schools , over 600teachers and 5,700 studentsduring the 2017-2018 academic year. Each school "adopted" a sectionof the Italian coast, covering a total of 2,610km , equal to one third of the country's natural coastline.

The most frequent indicator reported by the"guardians" along the coast was marine pollution. In particular,critical data emerged regarding plasticwaste, which accounts for 68.1%of all the waste washed up on beaches, followedby paper (15.1%), fishing equipment (6.5%), glass and pottery (6.2%), metal andaluminum (4.1%). The most frequently reported objects are plastic materials(bottles and containers for liquids, bags, plastic or polystyrene boxes, foodcontainers), as well as cigarette butts and filters. The aim of the project isto raise awareness among young people of the need to protect the sea and theItalian coastline, with the objective of creating an "environmental snapshot" of our country's coast with whichcomparisons can be made over time.

Guardians of the Coast involves the Ministry of Education, Universities andResearch, with which the Costa Crociere Foundation and the Genoa Schoolof Robotics Association have signed a Memorandum of Understanding,consistent with the actions taken under the Italian National Plan for DigitalEducation.

The schools that signed up to the initiative"adopted" a section of the Italian coastline, voluntarily andcompletely free of charge, on which to carry out their surveys. Teachers andstudents had access to a dedicated onlineplatform with educational content and handouts produced with the help ofscientific partners from the School of Robotics and OLPA, the Ligurian Fishingand Environment Observatory. Three main aspects were examined duringeducational activities in the classroom: Mediterraneanmarine environment and biodiversity; climatechange and alien species; environmental pollution and marine waste.

Under the Guardians of the Coast program, studentswere able to alternate their studies with work experience and 108 schoolssigned up to the relevant agreement. Educational activities in the classroomalternated with fieldwork between January and May 2018, during whichtime students monitored their section of coastline, reporting on the featuresof the coastal environment, environmental quality indicators and socio-economicaspects associated with the management of the coastal strip and its resources. Theresult is a database of over 50,000useful reports collected systematically with the help of guidance sheetscontained in the Guardians of the CoastApp and validated by OLPA experts, who analyzed and summarizedthem in themed maps.

The reports show theconsequences of the constant pressure exerted by humans on the sea, in manyaspects: pollution of differentkinds, coastal overbuilding, degradation of the seabed and beaches, depletion of fish stocks. One of the main and most evident forms ofpollution is the presence of waste abandoned or dragged into the marineenvironment. Marine waste was, infact, one of the most frequently reported indicators by Guardians of the Coastparticipants, demonstrating a widespread environmental problem that is now,sadly, a feature of all the world's oceans. In particular, the overwhelmingpresence of plastic waste (68.1%of all the reports of beached waste) wasnoted uniformly across all 5 marine basins.

"I believe theGuardians of the Coast project will make an important contribution tomonitoring the state of health of our coasts over time, because it can rely ona large and widespread network of observers - or "Guardians" - acrossthe country: over 5,700 students and 600 teachers. Apart from its scientificvalue, the other great objective pursued by the project is to raise awarenessamong students and citizens of the fragile beauty of the natural heritage alongItalian coasts and of the consequences of the increase in waste. For this reason, the second Guardians of theCoast program will be focusing in particular on the pollution caused by plasticmaterials. It would nice to be able to systematically implement the initiativespromoted in this area by the leading Italian organizations" - said Davide Triacca, Secretary General ofthe Costa Crociere Foundation.

In addition to tackling theproblem of marine pollution, the students also focused on biodiversity, providing a general snapshot of the marine organismsand vegetation found along Italian beaches, with interesting reports of the presence of protected and uncommon species(fan mussels, date mussels, cowries,giant tuns, ribbed Mediterranean limpets)as well as several sightings of beached mammals and sea turtles. As part of thestudy on the effects of climate change, 10 alien species were found, includingyellowmouth barracudas and parrotfish, both of Atlantic origin. Although thesewere found in areas that are already known about, the fact that the studentswere able to identify and conduct a census of them using very simple toolsunderlines the importance of involving citizens in gathering useful informationto update the distribution maps of the various invasive species.

The Guardians of the Coast project will be offered again to secondary schools forthe 2018-2019 academic year, so thatthe length of coastline kept under observation can be further extended and adata history can be compiled. The second program will focus more specificallyon marine pollution by monitoring micro/macro plastics with the cooperation ofa new scientific partner, the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Laboratory ofthe Marino Santa Teresa Marine Environment Research Center of ENEA, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and SustainableEconomic Development.

For further information, go to www.guardianidellacosta.it

For further information:

CostaCruises

Gabriele Baroni – CommunicationDirector – cell 349 7668013 - baroni@costa.it

Davide Barbano – Media RelationsManager – cell 334 6525216 - barbano@costa.it

Press releases and photosavailable at www.costapresscenter.com

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