The Blue Wave Project in Fethiye-Göcek is about protecting the area’s beautiful bays and beaches by encouraging greener boating practices

Last week an important milestone took place – partners met with the Fethiye District Governor, the highest local authority who represents institutions such as the coastguard and tourism department.

This gave us the opportunity to discuss the results of our Sustainable Boating Practices Survey, which was conducted with 100 boat staff in late 2017.

Top-down sustainable practices

An exciting development as a result of this meeting is that some of the Blue Wave project aims will be incorporated into local legislation and regulations. The greener boating practices we want to see are coming closer to becoming ‘business as usual’.

A representative from Blue Wave will now represent the project at district level meetings, in which local regulations are agreed.

Since Fethiye bay has a berthing capacity of over 2,500 vessels, and demand is set to double over the next two decades, it has never been more important for environmentally friendly practices to be embedded at the highest level.