A Day with Green Sea Safari in Croatia

In this final post on my travels in Croatia, I recommend, if you do anything in Dubrovnik, take the opportunity to spend a day with Green Sea Safari. You will enjoy the interesting and fun crew and probably visit islands where none of your friends have been. There is no charge, but donations are welcome if you are so inclined.

I sat in on an environmental program at the Friendship Force World Conference, where Marlena Cukteras, a founder of the Green Sea Safari, spoke about the project. She is a vibrant young physicist, turned environmental activist, dedicated to the sea safari mission. As an NGO their objective is to clean isolated beaches and islands of plastic, bottles, and other such waste. She invited attendees to join her team on an island cleanup day. I signed up for the opportunity to spend some time on one of the Ellephiti Islands and participate in their work.

We boated toward Jakljan, the island they chose to work on that day. While some of the crew prepared lunch, those of us who volunteered headed out along the bay with our work gloves and trash bags in tow.

There is an eerie beauty to Jakljan. The bay and beach were breathtaking, in spite of the trash left behind and washed in from who knows where. Along the shore stood the remnants of what looked an elegant seaside resort from the past. Why it had been left to decay I don’t know. A blog I founnd,the Piece Prize, wrote that it was developed in 1974 as a home for children and operated until the 1990’s war with Yugoslavia.

A monument and inscription near the harbor tell a somber tale of the year following WWII The English translation reads that Croatians and Germans on the island were murdered by the Communists. This Wikipedia article about Jakljan explains a bit more of this unsettling history.

On that note and unexpected jarring encounter with history, we return to the boat with our filled trash bags and enjoy a delicious hot lunch prepared onboard. We watched as some of the local Green Sea Safari volunteers surfaced in their scuba gear with trash picked up from the sea floor.

The afternoon concluded with an opportunity to swim in those gorgeous waters before returning to Dubrovnik for our last evening.

I will leave you with a nightime photo of the Old City of Dubrovnik. I’ve loved the hiking, benefited from the Friendship Force Conference, met new friends and learned significantly more of the history of Croatia.