Palangama Reef

Finally diving again! Together with nine volunteer divers I visited the Palagama Reef just outside Sri Lanka's capital Colombo as part of the campaign "Cleaner Seabeds for Sri Lanka". The reef was analyzed and cleaned by us. It is recovering well, corals are growing back and to my surprise the fish population was decent! Unfortunately, the reef was still heavily polluted and after two dives we had collected 47 kilograms of plastic waste. This ranged from fishing equipment to plastic bottles, surgical masks and small plastic packaging. The garbage we find under water comes to 80% from the inland and finds its way over the rivers and waterways into the sea. But these 47 kilograms now no longer pose a threat to Nemo and Co! They are picked up by a waste disposal company.Read more