The sun was high in the sky and the water invitingly cool on Sunday 8th February. It is a rare treat for those of us working hard in paradise to get into the water during a working day, but Sunday brought some relief as we encouraged our guests and hosts alike to join us in grabbing their SCUBA gear and donning their snorkeling sets as we did a Dive Against Debris! After an informative presentation by Vaidas, we set out to clear our lagoon of any rubbish! This months reef clean was a huge success as we collected ~50kg of trash from our lagoon between 8 hosts in just 1 hour! Our collection included some bizarre items such as an old wooden stair, part of a sun lounger and some linoleum flooring, as well as the usual plastic bags and drinks cans.
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| Our team of hosts collected 5 bags full of debris! Photo Credit: Frank Mitchell |
Trash in our Oceans is fast becoming one of the biggest ecological disasters of our time, with plastics circulating in the oceans in huge currents called Gyres for hundreds of years. The most important thing we can do to fight this issue is to reduce our daily consumption of waste, especially plastics; reuse any waste that we do use; and recycle as much as possible.
For more information or to get involved by finding a Dive Against Debris near you, visit the Project Aware website, and to learn more about the impact of plastics in our Oceanic environment, visit the 5 Gyres Organisation website.