On July 31, a coordinated environmental initiative removed 960 kilograms of waste from St Paul’s Bay and the surrounding island. Twenty volunteers participated in the operation organized by iGEN, focusing on marine litter and abandoned fishing equipment.
Operation Logistics and Volunteer Coordination
The cleanup commenced at 13:00 near the Triq San Geraldu slipway, where a chartered traditional luzzu was prepared by divers Reniero Borg, Edward, Adrian Sultana, and Graziella Buttigieg from Raniero’s Adventures and No To Plastic Malta. Glen from iGEN and Rob Jones from NoID established a base camp near the pumping station to manage the Sirens Quay sector. They were joined by Céline, Pauline, and Jade, interns at The Merill Company, who collected vegetation litter using sacks supplied by CleanMalta. The St Pauls Bay local council provided the waste skip and secured the required permits.At 14:00, the vessel departed with Kindred volunteers led by Aurelie Knoglinger aboard. The team split into onshore and offshore groups upon reaching St Paul’s Island. While the divers retrieved submerged materials, the land crew surveyed the rocky terrain under 30°C temperatures, taking brief breaks near the St Paul statue, the only shaded point on the island.
Recovered items included plastic and glass containers, shotgun cartridges, paint pots, discarded clothing, car tires, batteries, and a heavy-duty pipe from a decommissioned fish farm. The operation concluded with the full removal of all collected debris.