Ona Carbonell participates in marine litter cleanup on Cortegada Island with ABANCA and Afundación

Olympic medalist Ona Carbonell has joined the fight against marine litter alongside Afundación in a new cleanup activity organized by the Social Work of ABANCA on Cortegada Island, within the Maritime-Terrestrial National Park of the Atlantic Islands of Galicia.

The beaches of Cortegada Island were chosen by Afundación to carry out a new marine waste cleanup day under PlanctON, the territorial action plan promoted by the Social Work of ABANCA, which since its inception last year has been traversing the Galician coasts from north to south, conducting multiple cleanup actions that have already removed nearly 25 tons of this type of waste from beaches and shellfish grounds in 18 cleaning operations. The PlanctON project, which is part of the sustainability strategy of ABANCA and Afundación, aims primarily to promote the conservation and sustainability of socioeconomic activities carried out in certain areas of special protection for marine birds in Galicia, as well as in other places of special relevance.

The day on Cortegada Island was particularly special, as among the more than 50 participants in this experience, belonging to third-sector associations such as Bata e Con Eles, Grupo Naturalista Hábitat, Asociación de Mariscadoras de Carril, the National Park itself, CECA, and the Actúa volunteer program of ABANCA and Afundación, was the Olympic medalist of the Spanish National Artistic Swimming Team and ambassador of the Social Work and Financial Education of CECA, Ona Carbonell, a woman closely linked to the sea, as she has indicated on more than one occasion.

Ona Carbonell, ambassador of the Social Work and Financial Education of CECA since 2019 and a reference in Spanish sports, embodies the values of commitment and dedication that guide the entities associated with CECA, committed to progress and society through initiatives that contribute to social well-being and promote development, with a special focus on the most vulnerable groups.

The activity also involved the head of Sustainability at ABANCA, María García Cabeza, the general coordinator of CSR at Afundación, Pilar Alves, and the director of the National Park das Illas Atlánticas, Pepín Fernández Bouzas.

As a result of the cleanup, more than 52 kilos were collected from the different beaches worked on throughout the day, with a particular abundance of plastic pieces lost during mussel farming operations on rafts, small tangles of fishing lines, pieces of nets and cables, caps, cans and bottles of beverages and other products, cigarette butts, plastic remnants from ear cleaning swabs, drinking straws, wrappers, and small unidentifiable pieces of plastic regarding their origin.

Prior to the cleanup, the shellfish gatherers from AMARCARRIL conducted a small introductory workshop on shellfishing to showcase their work, an activity they complemented with a brief tour around the island where they guided the volunteers, sharing all the secrets hidden in this beautiful enclave of the Arousa estuary.