Over the past 20 years, scuba diving has evolved into a vibrant worldwide community. Scuba diving, and a shared love for the ocean, brings people together despite geographical distance and language barriers. One unfortunate aspect of scuba diving that rings an emotional bell for most divers is garbage, specifically, the scourge of marine debris that we see first hand on many, if not all, of our dives. The oceans are, and always have been, a dumping ground for humankind’s unwanted materials.
Our planet’s waterways, from oceans to ponds, are being polluted like never before in human history. Garbage has found its way into every conceivable waterway system there is, which has motivated many concerned people to ask where all this garbage is coming from.
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The many sources of ocean garbage
Uncomfortably for many westerners, most of the unwanted garbage floating in the ocean, or on the sea floor, comes from industrial countries. Many industrialized countries tow large barges, filled to capacity with garbage, approximately 6 to 10 miles off shore and then dump their cargo. Some countries, such as the United States, have set further limits, requiring municipalities to dump their garbage over 100 miles out to sea. This may help prevent much of the garbage from washing up on shore, but it hasn’t solved the problem of using our oceans as a human waste dump.
Garbage washes up on shore every day, of every year, in every coastal country. Land lovers complain when they see garbage on the beaches they visit because it mars nature’s beauty. Scuba divers the world over share in this pain every time they come across a candy wrapper, plastic bag, tire, cigarette butt, tin can or any other man-made piece of trash lying on the ocean floor or on top of a beautiful reef. Those unfamiliar with scuba diving and boating don’t realize that even personal garbage that people discard outside of a trashcan also finds its way into the oceans. One of the worst types of garbage to end up in the oceans, lakes and rivers of the world is not plastic bags, tires, paper, aluminum or steel cans — it’s batteries, which are toxic, and poison marine wildlife as they deteriorate.
Is there anything to be done about this seemingly intractable problem? The answer is complicated. No individual can fix the world’s dumping dilemma alone, but collectively people can come together and bring worldwide awareness to the problem. Demand that international organizations such as the United Nations nudge industrial countries to lower, limit, and hopefully cease dumping their garbage into the ocean. Divers working together on a regular basis around the world can also help by picking up garbage off the ocean floor when they dive. This may seem a small contribution, but it won’t be seen that way by the turtle that doesn’t choke on the six-pack ring you picked up.
Scuba divers: Cleaning the ocean one dive at a time
Scuba divers working together around the world could theoretically make much more than a dent in the global garbage problem. According to PADI, there are more than 22 million certified divers in the world, in over 120 countries. Add in the world’s NAUI- certified divers and that’s a lot of potential unsung heroes. Conservative estimates predict that each diver will average two dives per year; suddenly you’ve got a number that can make a difference.
If divers started collecting garbage on a regular basis, even one or two pieces per dive, at popular dive sites around the world, it would bring a huge amount of public awareness to the issue.
Organized garbage cleanups already exist via organizations like Project AWARE’s Dive Against Debris, but all scuba instructors, divemasters and recreational divers can add to the database by logging the amount and types of garbage they collect on their dives. Logging such information can be a great way to engage other divers in conversation about keeping the oceans clean.
Collecting garbage is, of course, a good thing to do, but recording what you find, along with its approximate weight, may be more important. Why is that? This information, when collected from divers around the world, can be a powerful tool to encourage world governments to focus on the serious consequences of dumping garbage into the world’s waterways. As garbage is collected and recorded, a picture will begin to form about the areas of the world that are most affected.
Garbage isn’t going away anytime soon, but if each of your dives is a cleanup dive, your efforts will at the very least positively impact that dive site. The best way to get this movement going is to spread the word. Get your dive buddies to clean up when you’re on a fun dive. You won’t miss any of your diving by picking up a few pieces of plastic and other trash, and you may just be some turtle’s hero.
