Milestone Moment: Healthy Seas Launches First-Ever Lake Cleanup at UNESCO Heritage Lake Ohrid

At Healthy Seas, our focus is on marine conservation – however, our mission has always been: We go where the problem is – or to quote Pascal van Erp, founder of Ghost Diving and Deputy Director of Healthy Seas: “Ghost fishing gear is everywhere, but so are we!”

Our upcoming mission will lead us to Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia. Lake Ohrid is the oldest lake in Europe and among the most speciose in the world. It has a maximum depth of up to 288 meters and it stretches over 30 km in length at a width of 15 km. The lake has a unique ecosystem with around 200 endemic species. Since 1979, Lake Ohrid is inscribed on the World Heritage List as the property ‘Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region’. This region has the status of a protected area of the 5th category and is part of a Biosphere Reserve.

Despite being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Lake Ohrid faces multiple severe environmental threats such as:

• Uncontrolled solid waste and ghost fishing gear disposal into the lake
• Commercial fishing, where gill nets are being used to fish the endemic Ohrid trout and other endemic species.

Thanks to the support of Hyundai and in collaboration with the Hydrobiological Institute of Ohrid, the local government, the Amfora diving center, and environmental groups, Healthy Seas and Ghost Diving are planning a multiple-day-project to clean up the lake, discuss the problem of ghost gear in Lake Ohrid and exchange ideas on the next steps we can take to protect this important natural landmark.

Together with local partners, we want to support building an infrastructure which can help preserve this lake in the years to come and show the importance of treating Lake Ohrid and the surrounding area as the UNESCO World Heritage Site it is.
The aim of this joint project is to detect the re-accumulation of fishing nets at certain localities in Lake Ohrid – which at the same time are natural spawning grounds for the endemic Lake Ohrid Trout – and to designate the plan for their removal in the upcoming period.

To wrap up this meaningful pilot project, we are also implementing a round table, together with the PSI Hydrobiological Institute of Ohrid, to present the results of the previous clean-up days and exchange further on the problems caused by Ghost Nets and discuss plans to continue tackling this problem in the future.

Stay tuned 😊