Kristijan Curavić prepares record-breaking underwater feat on Krapanj: seabed cleanup and a message to world leaders
Croatian diver and environmental activist Kristijan Curavić is preparing a multi-hour underwater operation on Krapanj in the Šibenik archipelago to remove plastic and other marine waste, conceived simultaneously as a physical cleanup operation, an endurance feat and a global message about marine pollution. Ocean Alliance Conservation Member (OACM), the organisation headed by Curavić, announced on 10 August 2026 that the operation should last continuously between 16 and 30 hours and that it is planned as an attempt to enter the Guinness World Records. In an announcement published on 30 August, eTurboNews describes the project as a 30-hour attempt, with plans to transmit video, sound and data from beneath the sea. The exact date of the operation has not been specified in the verified public announcements, so for now it can be described as a planned rather than a completed feat.
The central idea of the project is to combine the direct removal of waste with the visibility generated by an unusual diving challenge. According to OACM, during his time underwater Curavić is expected to use traditional heavy diving equipment with a copper helmet, together with modern systems for communication, recording, monitoring and waste retrieval. The organisation has announced continuous underwater telemetry and a video signal so that part of the operation can be followed from outside the location itself. eTurboNews also states that Curavić is expected to deliver an environmental address from beneath the sea to international political and public leaders. OACM presents this element as the first underwater diplomatic-environmental speech of its kind, although such a claim should be treated as a statement by the organiser until it is independently documented and confirmed.
The record is currently an attempt, not a confirmed title
The announcement of a Guinness record attracts the most attention, but there is an important distinction between a registered attempt and an officially recognised result. In its announcement, OACM states that the operation near Krapanj will be an officially monitored record attempt in continuous underwater physical removal of plastic. In its rules for setting or breaking records, Guinness World Records explains that a candidate must first receive the appropriate guidelines, carry out the attempt according to predetermined criteria and collect the required evidence. The evidence is then reviewed by its Records Management Team, which decides whether the record has actually been achieved. Therefore, before the procedure is completed, a new Guinness World Record cannot be presented as a confirmed fact.
In this case, the difference between the available announcements creates an additional need for precise wording. On 10 August, OACM refers to a continuous operation lasting between 16 and 30 hours, while on 30 August eTurboNews highlights a 30-hour cleanup in its headline and introductory section, while also mentioning a shorter duration in one part of the article. The safest description is therefore that the project is an attempt which, according to the organiser's official announcement, could last up to 30 hours. Whether Curavić will actually complete the full planned maximum underwater, how much waste will be removed and under which exact category the result will be assessed can only be reliably established after the operation and the publication of measurable results.
Guinness World Records also requires a record to be measurable, standardised and verifiable. For the Krapanj attempt, clearly defined duration, the conditions of uninterrupted time underwater and documentation of the actual removal of waste will therefore be crucial. Only completed verification will distinguish the announcement from a potentially official record.
Krapanj connects the project with a centuries-old diving tradition
The choice of Krapanj is not accidental. The Šibenik Tourist Board states that Krapanj is Croatia's smallest inhabited island, with an area of approximately 0.36 square kilometres, and also the lowest island in the Adriatic, with an average elevation of about 1.5 metres above sea level. Only a few hundred metres separate it from the mainland and the settlement of Brodarica. More importantly for Curavić's project, the island's identity has for centuries been connected with the sea, diving, fishing and the harvesting and processing of sea sponges. Official tourism sources for the Šibenik area state that the sponge-harvesting tradition on Krapanj has been developing since the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
According to these sources, the knowledge of harvesting and processing sponges was brought to the islanders by Friar Antun from Crete. The organisers therefore want part of the operation to be carried out using traditional heavy diving equipment with a copper helmet, but combined with modern cameras, communication systems and diver monitoring. Krapanj's historical diving heritage thus becomes an integral part of the environmental project rather than merely its backdrop.
Curavić himself has also been connected with Krapanj and diving sport for years. International media recorded his dive beneath Arctic ice in 2005, when he reached a depth of 51.2 metres in the North Pole region without scuba equipment. Reports at the time described the feat as a new record in under-ice diving, while noting that the discipline was not recognised as an official competitive discipline by the leading freediving organisations. That distinction remains important today: Curavić has a long history of extreme diving feats, but every new record depends on the rules of the organisation that verifies it. The new Krapanj project attempts to redirect that sporting and physical component towards the removal of marine waste.
Why the seabed is at the centre of the operation
The project's environmental message is based on a problem far broader than a single beach or island. The United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, estimates that between 19 and 23 million tonnes of plastic waste enter aquatic ecosystems every year, including rivers, lakes and seas. UNEP also estimates that between 75 and 199 million tonnes of plastic are already present in the oceans. A large share of the waste is not permanently visible on the surface: some remains on the shore, some floats, some breaks down into smaller particles, and some eventually sinks to the seabed. For this reason, beach cleaning, although useful, does not provide a complete picture of the burden on the marine environment.
The European Commission states that plastic accounts for around 80 percent of marine litter. Among the most common sources are single-use plastic products, improperly managed waste and fishing gear, while waste is also transported into the sea by rivers, drainage systems, wind and maritime activities. A particular problem is the fact that larger plastic items break down into smaller pieces under the effects of sunlight, waves and mechanical wear, but do not disappear. This is precisely why European policies increasingly distinguish between litter on the coast, in the water column and on the seabed, rather than assessing the condition of the sea solely by the appearance of the surface or bathing areas.
At the end of 2025, European Union Member States also agreed on the first common thresholds for monitoring seabed litter under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The European Commission states that in visually monitored areas the target means no more than one litter item per 1,000 square metres of seabed, while areas monitored through trawl surveys should not show an increase in the amount of litter over time. Current assessments focus on waters up to 200 metres deep. This regulatory development demonstrates why removing and measuring litter below the surface has become an important part of European marine protection policy, rather than merely an activity carried out by diving clubs and volunteer initiatives.
An underwater address as part of environmental diplomacy
The most unusual part of the announced project is not only the length of time underwater, but also the plan for Curavić to speak from beneath the sea during the operation. According to eTurboNews and OACM, the communication is expected to be transmitted using an underwater audio-video system and telemetry. The organiser states that the objective is to send a message to current and former heads of state and international decision-makers and call on them to become more strongly involved in programmes for the physical removal of plastic from the sea. Among the people mentioned by OACM in this context are former presidents and international officials as well as current monarchs, but the mere presence of their names in the announcement does not mean that these individuals will participate in the event or be official partners of the record attempt.
Among the people mentioned by OACM, eTurboNews also names Justin Trudeau as a former Canadian prime minister; the official website of the Government of Canada confirms that Mark Carney has been prime minister since March 2025. It is therefore more accurate to speak of a planned address to current and former leaders rather than an official intergovernmental event. No list of confirmed state delegations for Krapanj has been published so far.
If the broadcast is carried out as announced, the message about marine waste would come directly from the environment in which some of that waste ultimately ends up. Its long-term impact, however, will depend on verifiable results. UNEP stresses that cleaning up the consequences is not enough without reducing the amount of waste entering the environment and improving plastic management, meaning that even a major underwater operation cannot by itself stop the new flow of waste from land-based and maritime sources.
White Flag and OACM's concept of "plastic-free" marine areas
Curavić's broader objective is linked to White Flag International and the Certified SAFE Marine Area, or CSMA, concept, which OACM presents as a system for the physical cleaning, certification and subsequent monitoring of marine, lake and river areas. According to OACM's own rules, the process includes surveying the area, removing plastic and other non-biodegradable waste above and below the surface, and periodically monitoring conditions. The idea is that a tourist destination should not be assessed solely according to the cleanliness of the shoreline visible to visitors, but also according to the condition of the underwater area along the coast. The Krapanj operation is conceived as a highly visible demonstration of precisely this approach.
At the same time, it is important to distinguish OACM's certification from official European Union regulatory standards or a universally accepted international environmental certification. OACM states on its website that White Flag is its own programme and that its inspectors, procedures and standards are developed and implemented by the organisation itself. The European Union separately regulates marine litter through the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, rules on single-use plastics, waste management and other legislation. The White Flag designation therefore represents the organiser's standard, while the official assessment of good environmental status of marine waters is based on legal criteria, systematic monitoring and comparable indicators.
For the credibility of the operation, it will be important to publish what was removed, from what area and depth, in what quantity and how the waste was disposed of. It is equally important whether the area will be inspected again. Without transparent measurements and repeated monitoring, it is difficult to distinguish a one-off cleanup from a lasting improvement in environmental conditions.
Tourism, clean seas and the limits of one-off operations
For coastal tourist destinations, the issue of marine litter also has an economic dimension. UNEP warns that pollution increases the costs of beach cleaning and waste management and can cause damage to tourism, fisheries, aquaculture and maritime activities. In destinations whose appeal is based on the sea and beaches, visible plastic directly affects the experience of the area, while litter on the seabed poses a problem for ecosystems and activities such as diving. It is therefore understandable that marine protection is being linked with tourism policy, but success must be measured by environmental results rather than media reach alone.
European policies are therefore increasingly combining prevention, reductions in single-use plastics, monitoring and waste removal. Local initiatives have the greatest value when they are part of a system that prevents new waste from entering the environment and monitors conditions over a longer period, rather than when they end with the participants' final ascent to the surface.
The Krapanj attempt has the potential to attract attention precisely because it combines several elements that rarely appear in a single event: a diver working underwater for many hours, traditional equipment, seabed cleaning, live broadcasting and a political message. Its real value, however, can only be assessed after concrete results are published. If the operation reaches the planned duration, satisfies Guinness criteria and at the same time documents the actual amount of waste removed, Krapanj could gain international visibility as a place where a centuries-old diving tradition has been used to address the contemporary issue of marine protection. If some of these elements are absent, the event will remain primarily a symbolic and media-focused operation.
As of 30 August 2026, it has been confirmed that OACM is publicly preparing the project and presenting it as an underwater cleanup attempt that could last up to 30 hours. It has not yet been confirmed that the record has been achieved, the final cleanup result has not been published, and the verified announcements do not specify the exact date of the attempt itself. It is therefore most accurate to describe it as an ambitiously conceived mission whose environmental and record-breaking significance will depend on its execution, measurable data and independent verification. What is already clear is that the choice of Krapanj gives the project a strong local historical context: an island that has lived from diving and the sea for centuries becomes the setting for a discussion about how much waste today remains hidden directly beneath its surface.
Sources:
- Ocean Alliance Conservation Member - official announcement of the Guinness World Record attempt for underwater plastic removal on Krapanj, planned duration and technical concept (link)
- eTurboNews - report of 30 August 2026 on Curavić's project, underwater address, equipment and international broadcasting plan (link)
- Guinness World Records - rules for applying for, carrying out and subsequently verifying world record attempts (link)
- UNEP - current data on the amount of plastic waste entering aquatic ecosystems and the estimated amount of plastic in the oceans (link)
- European Commission - data on the share of plastic in marine litter and European measures against single-use plastics (link)
- European Commission - new thresholds for seabed litter within European marine environmental protection policy (link)
- Šibenik Tourist Board - geographical data about Krapanj and its tradition of sponge harvesting, diving and fishing (link)
- Šibenik-Knin County Tourist Board - history of diving and sea sponge harvesting on Krapanj (link)
- ABC News / AFP - report on Curavić's 2005 dive beneath the ice at the North Pole and the status of the discipline at the time (link)
- OACM - description of the White Flag International programme and the Certified SAFE Marine Area concept (link)
- Office of the Prime Minister of Canada - confirmation that Mark Carney has been the current Canadian prime minister since March 2025 (link)