Donation Presented to NABU

At the same time, the resort administration pledged to donate 50 cents for every kilogram of the 2.4 metric tons of trash collected to the “Oceans Without Plastic” project run by the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU). Yesterday, the resort director and the mayor of the Kaiserbäder, along with co-initiators of the campaign, presented the donation of 1,200 euros to NABU.

“The initial spark for the fish can idea came from thinking about how to deal with the mountains of trash caused every year by New Year’s Eve fireworks,” recalls Lars Petersen, mayor of the municipality of Ostseebad Heringsdorf. Instead of setting up containers on the beach, the fish cans were developed in collaboration with co-initiators Ingbert Völker from the event company FXdeco, Claudia Pautz from “inselverliebt Usedom,” and Jan Kubea from Use-domer Fotografie. “They’re real eye-catchers that get the message across with a wink rather than a wagging finger.”

Nils Möllmann from NABU’s Marine Conservation Project Office in Stralsund was delighted to accept the donation of 1,200 euros: “With this unconventional packaging, the Kaiserbäder have succeeded in motivating people to get involved through a sense of wonder and curiosity.” The donation will go toward the umbrella project “Oceans Without Plastic.” The funds are used, for example, to organize beach cleanup campaigns every year on International Coastal Cleanup Day, the third Saturday in September. The project also finances a monitoring program in which trash is collected and analyzed along various monitoring routes in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

“The fish can campaign is a great example of how marketing can be combined with coastal protection. We’ve commissioned four more fish cans, so that by the start of the season, a total of eight of these humorous trash cans will be available on the beaches of the imperial seaside resorts of Ahlbeck, Heringsdorf, and Bansin,” announced Thomas Heilmann, director of the tourist board.