Organizing a big event on one of the most popular islands in the world is no easy task. Three months of vigorous preparations went into planning every single detail. And yet, when the team arrived in Santorini, there was still lots more to figure out.

Like, finding the right boats. Or, how will the server streaming the live feed be powered? With only 2 days to go until the big event on June 8th, some of us were busy with building the equipment while at the same time others were running up and down the island to find a power source that could handle the demand. In the end, we used 3 big batteries!

The divers on the other hand were challenged by the steep underwater cliffs that were formed thousands of years ago when the Thera volcano erupted. Pascal van Erp, Founder of Ghost Fishing, spearheaded the ghost net removal operation. He described underwater Santorini as a giant lagoon with very steep drop-offs which rapidly reaches 400m of depth and which would require good team work to get the net safely out of the water. Thankfully, the diving team had worked together many times before and was able to remove a huge ghost net measuring approximately 150 meters!

After the nets were removed from the seabed, they were securely placed into large bags and will be transported for regeneration. They will travel to a cleaning facility and eventually be delivered to Aquafil who will transform and regenerate them into ECONYL® yarn to then be used by Carvico for the production of fabrics for swimwear.

And who knows, maybe this time next year you might be wearing one of these swimsuits and vacationing in Santorini!