Clean Beach Pirates 2026 is a floating climate justice initiative that combines environmental action, sailing, and collective learning in the Ionian Sea, Greece. Coordinated by the emerging Catalan association TIAMAT Creacció, the project invites people of different ages and backgrounds to actively engage with the climate crisis through hands-on beach clean-ups, political education, and community life on a sailboat, with a focus on youth.
By linking waste pollution with broader questions of power, extractivism, ecofeminism, and social justice, Clean Beach Pirates transforms concern into collective agency. Participants learn the four dimensions of sustainability through the eco-community lens. More than a volunteering experience, it is a community-supported process that nurtures long-term activism, skills, and alliances, strengthening movements both at sea and back on land, the associative way.
Why now? 2026 marks a new beginning
Clean Beach Pirates is entering a new phase, consolidating the previous years of experience and quiet reflection, to now open a renewed cycle of collective action. Through this campaign, we aim to:
-
Clean and Fix: Clean and restore remote and hard-to-access beaches in the Ionian Sea
-
Sail and Learn: Use the sailboat as a floating space for learning, dialogue, and collective residencies
-
Connect Ideas: Connect environmental action with feminist, regenerative, and community-based practices
-
Share Stories: Tell stories of strength, regeneration and new beginnings from all over the Mediterranean. We believe in the power of storytelling.
*Build a Strong Project: Build a financially, ecologically, and emotionally sustainable project
This campaign is not just about paying for a trip. It's about investing in a good future, building a worldwide community of people who make change, and making sure the Clean Beach Pirates can continue their important work for many years.
https://youtu.be/35aVUrtUVSg
Plastic pollution, coastal degradation, and climate injustice are not isolated problems; they are symptoms of a wider system that separates people from territory, care, and responsibility. Clean Beach Pirates arises from the need to respond differently: not only by cleaning beaches, but by creating spaces where people can understand why pollution happens, who is affected, and how collective action can challenge these dynamics. Plastic pollution, damaged coasts, and unfair climate problems are not separate issues. They are signs of a bigger system that separates people from nature, care, and responsibility. The Clean Beach Pirates don't just pick up rubbish. We look at the real reasons for the problem. We connect waste to bigger topics like power, taking too much from nature, women's and dissident identities' rights in ecology, and social fairness. This helps us turn worry into strong, hopeful group action.
Our special way of working helps people understand the four parts of sustainability through living in a floating eco-community. This is a process where the community helps each other. It helps people become activists for a long time, learn useful skills, and make strong friendships. We are making movements stronger both at sea and on land, working together. This creates positive changes that go far beyond the Ionian Sea, socially and ecollogically. Whether we live in Germany, Spain, Greece or Switzerland, we all depend on the ocean: it regulates our climate, shapes our weather and air, and sustains life far beyond the coast. The Mediterranean is part of this interconneted shared system, where what happens in one corner ripples across the whole, so protecting one area strengthens the resilience of the entire ecosystem. When volunteers from different places come together on a boat, their experiences and ideas will also travel back home with them.
Our project is deeply anchored in the Ionian sea for the summers and Barcelona for the winters, where the boat will be opening up to collectives and diverse communities trouhh non-formal education experiences. Tiamat Creacció was born in Barcelona, created and led by young people rooted in the city’s political ecology movement.
Our Promise to Society: Helping Young Changemakers
Many climate projects accidentally leave people out by thinking everyone already knows about activism and how activism is supposed to look. This makes our movement less diverse and less powerful at the local level. Our experience with Clean Beach Pirates shows that when young people are given easy, helpful, and youth-led ways to start, they quickly become confident to act, each of them in their own and diverse ways.
Join Our Team! Your Help Makes a Big Difference!
Every donation, big or small, helps us continue our important work. Your support directly pays for:
•Boat Care & Use: Keeping our floating classroom and action center ready for the sea.
•Learning Materials: Creating interesting content for ecological and social education.
•Youth Support: Making sure young people from different backgrounds can join with scholarships.
•Community Work: Connecting with local communities and working together.
•And a part fo this crowdfunding will go into the Flotillas for Gaza too! *
Ready to make a positive impact? Donate today and become part of the Clean Beach Pirates story! Together, we can sail towards a cleaner, fairer, and brighter future for our seas and communities.
Thank you for your kindness and for believing in our mission!
*Supporting the Gaza Flotillas is a coherent expression of our values: the sea as a space for civil action. We share with the flotillas a common approach: organizing from civil society to defend life and human rights from the sea, standing for a Mediterranean where all lives are valued. This is why we allocate a 5% of the budget to support this. Note that the 95% of the budget goes directly to the Clean Beach Pirates' project sustainability, beach clean-up and awareness actions we work for all year long.
Our Brave Team: Leading the Way
Our main team is full of passion and knowledge! Irene is at the helm, combining communications, facilitation and skipper hats with passion and direction. We also have Paco and Caro, who have a lot of experience in activism, managing projects, sailing, and living together at sea each of them with their unique gifts. Gabrielle, Alyssa, and Emerson help us with the pedagogical lens, caring for others, talking to people, and understanding nature and politics. We are also happy to work with local groups, artists, and activists in Greece and other places.
Since 2019, Clean Beach Pirates has organized many life-changing sailing weeks. We have had many people join, removed a lot of waste from beaches, and created new learning materials that connect sea life with social fairness. COVID meant a big change and a time for re-thinking. Now, with TIAMAT, we have a strong group structure to make sure our work continues, is responsible, and has an even bigger impact for a long time.