Province of Negros Oriental

Last Friday, we took part in a coastal and underwater cleanup event. The cities of Dauin and Malatapay organized a dive festival called "Dive 7". It's an annual event with the goal to collect as much trash on the coast as possible to prevent it from getting to the ocean floor where it's way harder for us to reach and remove. Additionally, the cleanup raises awareness to the issue of marine debris and the importance of proper waste management and behavior towards waste within the community (consume less, reduce waste and don't litter!).

There were a few hundred people attending the "Dive 7" event in Malatapay, which is quite a lot when taking into consideration that there aren't many people living in that little town. 😊 Of course, MCP and Pro Ocean (an NGO that is operating from the same base as MCP and does coastal cleanups every day) took part on the event. But even other divers joined, fun divers who normally do not work for NGOs or in the area of environmental conservation, to help out and collect plastic.

We joined forces with Pro Ocean and were handed bags to collect trash on the beach. After cleaning the beach, we geared up and went diving to collect trash underwater. The main focus was plastic waste and we found quite a lot down there. The problem with plastic is that it doesn't decompose but instead breaks down into smaller pieces and eventually becomes microplastic which then enters the food we eat (fish, seafood, seaweed, etc.) and can lead to cancer and other illnesses.

Did you know that every single piece of plastic ever produced still exists (if it hasn't been burned which is not a good idea considering climate change and the toxic gases)? Did your hear about the great pacific garbage patch, a floating plastic trash vortex three times the size of France (80.000 tonnes of plastic)? Or the other 4 very large garbage patches in our oceans? Did you know that most of the plastic in our oceans is already at the very bottom of the ocean floor (an estimated 14.4 million tons of plastic). We should keep those things in mind when deciding if and what to buy and to cosume. Let's all go for less waste, less packaging, less plastic and raise awareness to save our oceans. ❤️Read more