The main theme of week four of my LiA project is testing ideas and getting work done. This week, we explored the different needs of the non-profit organisation that we’re working with, MerTerre, to tailor and propose a solution that will be practically useful for them. We spent the majority of the week focusing on our individual component of deliverables, the benchmarking report of projects, research and legislation related to combating marine pollution worldwide. On top of that, we applied our brainstormed ideas and things that we learned from the ideation and community-building workshops by Make Sense last week into our joint component of deliverables, proposing solutions to increase the engagement of MerTerre’s community. 

My favourite activity of the week was on Wednesday, our carbon-offsetting day, a day dedicated to doing an activity to offset the carbon footprint that we created from travelling to France. Although realistically, it is never impossible to offset the carbon that we release. We spent the morning with MerTerre, helping them with a bi-monthly beach clean-up project at a fish farm located on the Frioul island. From conversations with MerTerre’s staff, we got to know that MerTerre is in charge of monitoring the pollution at two beaches in Marseille as part of an EU directive framework to assess the quality of the water in the EU region, which is super interesting. 

While we were on our way to the beach, we ran into a sailboat, Le Kraken, owned by Wings of the Ocean, an NGO also working towards zero marine waste. Le Kraken is a sailboat that sails along the coasts of the Mediterranean region, where most marine waste accumulates, making stops from Nice to Port St Louis du Rhône in France. The crew members were kind enough to give us a tour of Le Kraken, explaining their life on board, how they sail, their routes and how they communicate with the rest of the world while sailing. I am amazed and truly inspired by the work and effort that they put into cleaning up marine waste, solely to contribute to a positive cause and make the world more sustainable. To make the most out of their clean-ups, they also contribute to the Zero-Deschet-Sauvage (ZDS) data platform operated by MerTerre. 

After the beach clean-up, we also characterised the waste that we collected using the highest level of protocol provided by MerTerre, one consisting of 250+ categories of waste. This time, thanks to a smaller beach and more people, we only took less than an hour. Compared to the last beach clean-up for a public beach, this beach at the fish farm had a completely different composition. The waste that we collected had more smaller pieces of plastic, broken glass, 2 cigarette butts and most abundantly, fishing lines and nets, in contrast to the 317 cigarette butts that we collected at the previous beach. 

Additionally, we also had a group coaching session with Jade from Make Sense (once again feeling the benefit of being in a centrally organised LiA). Through regular check-ups and monitored feedback, it was really easy to make sure that all of us, including MerTerre and Make Sense, were all on the same page in terms of the work expected from us. Most importantly, we were checking on each other’s mental and physical health to make sure everyone is doing well and not stressed out by the expected work. I am beyond lucky to say that I have amazing teammates, Ethan and Jemma, who are the most amazing and caring people ever. 

Apart from the weekdays, Emma from Make Sense, with the help of her friend, got us free tickets for a friendly football match of the local team, Olympique de Marseille, against Seville FC on Saturday at the Velodrome stadium of Marseille. It was my first-ever football match, and it was definitely an eye-opening experience to see and feel the wholesome vibes and amazing support for the local team. I also took advantage of the first Sunday of the month, when all museums in France have free admission and visited MUCEM, Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations, which had interesting exhibitions about reading the sky, stars and constellations and the Mediterranean history and civilisation. 

This concludes my eventful and productive fourth week of my LiA project, and sad to say that I only have a week left to finish all my deliverables and leave Marseille!