F**k Plastic. Really. No, really. Apologies for the swearing but I feel like it’s warranted. Today I wrote an article about the potential of the diving industry to be a role model private sector to taking concrete actions to reduce their plastic footprint and lead the charge in what feels like a turning of tide in global opinion of plastic.
It reminded me of the changes I’ve seen since I started diving in 2001. How a plastic bag here or there turned into hour-long clean up dives, finding nappies and sanitary napkins, straws and plastic bottles that are used once and scar the Earth forever. And so much of it is under the sea - out of sight and out of mind for most of us.
We’ve all seen the straw in the turtle’s nose, the seahorse wrapped around a cotton bud, the fish that grew around a six-pack ring, and been disgusted. I urge you to take a minute and consider your actions as a consumer - the effort it takes to refuse a straw (it takes practice but I promise you can make it a habit) is far far less than the number of centuries it will take for that straw to disappear from the planet.
The photos are of a volunteer from Zoox on a clean up dive we did. This Trumpetfish was entangled in a (plastic) fishing net. It took over 10 minutes to free it, and you can see the scars it caused. If you don’t live near the ocean, there isn’t much you can do about ghost fishing (except learn about it, spread the word) but you can refuse straws, bring your own coffee tumblrs and shopping bags. And if you forget them (as I often do), don’t beat yourself up too much. Just keep trying, so they can keep swimming 😉
Some helpful resources to get you started:
https://mylittleplasticfootprint.org/
http://www.beatthemicrobead.org/
http://www.plasticfreejuly.org/
https://www.plasticoceans.org/
