Re:Fish and CLEAN Beach in Action on Helsinki Day: Cleaner Shores, Healthier Sea

The Central Baltic projects Re:Fish and CLEAN Beach are taking concrete action to tackle plastic pollution, ghost fishing and microlitter in the Baltic Sea through hands-on action and citizen engagement.

By tackling lost fishing gear and marine litter, Re:Fish highlights practical ways we can all contribute to a healthier marine environment. The project is also featured as Operations of Strategic Importance (OSI). These projects play a crucial role in achieving programme goals and showcasing the impact of EU funding. The project is led by Keep Sweden Tidy and implemented together with Keep the Archipelago Tidy, the Finnish Environmental Institute (Syke) and the University of Tartu.

“The most important impact we hope Re:Fish will have, is a significant reduction in plastic pollution and ghost fishing caused by lost or discarded recreational fishing gear. By retrieving gear and through education and preventive measures, we aim to restore and improve the environmental health of the Baltic Sea. Engaging stakeholders is key to creating long-term, sustainable solutions, says project manager Jutta Vuolamo.

The clean-up event also marked one of the early actions of the recently launched CLEAN Beach project, led by the Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology and implemented together with the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) and the Tallinn University of Technology. The goal of the project is to develop harmonized, simple and cost-effective guidelines for monitoring microplastics in beach sand to enable more consistent and comparable data collection across the Baltic Sea region. By actively involving municipalities and citizens, the project will also increase both the number of monitored beaches and the frequency of monitoring efforts. In turn, this will support better-informed policies and more effective pollution prevention measures.

“In addition to targeted educational activities, the user-friendly digital platform Rosgis helps raise environmental awareness and engage citizens in scientific data collection. By improving the quality of environmental monitoring and public services, the project contributes to cleaner beaches, healthier coastal ecosystems, and better-informed communities on the issue of microlitter,” says team lead of the CLEAN Beach project Outi Setälä.

Hands-on impact at the clean-up event

A powerful example of hands-on impact took place on Helsinki Day, 12 June, as the two projects participated in the “Suvanto Siistiksi” clean-up event. Divers and volunteers worked together to remove litter from both the shoreline and underwater areas of Vanhankaupunginlahti. Both projects see citizen engagement and events as vital to their projects’ success.

“Local clean-up events play a vital role in the success of the Re:Fish project. These kinds of events engage local communities, raise awareness, and empower citizens and fishers to take concrete action to protect nearby aquatic environments. The insights gained also support the project’s citizen science goals and help shape more effective, evidence-based solutions, says Vuolamo.

The focus was on collecting harmful waste – especially plastics and lost fishing gear – that pose risks to fish, birds, and marine mammals in the Baltic Sea ecosystem. The collected debris was then featured in an underwater litter exhibition displayed at the event – highlighting the scale and nature of the pollution found below the surface.

“Events like this raise awareness, foster responsibility, and offer a hands-on way to test and promote new microplastic monitoring tools like the Rosgis app. They also support data collection and long-term behavioral change – both essential for achieving lasting environmental impact”, adds Setälä.

Cleaner waters through cross-border collaboration

Both projects combine awareness-raising with hands-on work. Re:Fish collects abandoned nets and other fishing gear that cause unnecessary suffering to marine life and breaks down into microplastics that are extremely difficult to remove from nature. CLEAN Beach aims to develop the monitoring of small plastic litter and to reduce the amount of such litter on the shores of the Baltic Sea. The projects also encourage citizens to actively participate in e.g. coastal clean-up.

The “Suvanto Siistiksi” event at the Helsinki Day celebrations showed how local action can support broader environmental goals. Both Re:Fish and CLEAN Beach demonstrate how collaboration between citizens, authorities and cross-border partners leads to real, measurable impact for the marine environment.

Helsinki Day, celebrated annually on 12 June, marks the birthday of Finland’s capital with a wide range of free public events across the city. The “Suvanto Siistiksi” clean-up event is one of many activities that bring residents together to celebrate and care for their urban environment – on land and below the waterline.

Learn more about Re:Fish from their project webspace

More information on CLEAN Beach project

Text: Anne Jylhä, national Contact Point Finland,16.6.2025