DIVE INTO HELL
A MAJESTIC manta ray swims in a sea of plastic waste in a shocking photo taken by a scuba diver.
Environmentalist Brooke Pyke said the gentle sea creatures were unable to separate their food from the rubbish at Manta Bay off Bali, Indonesia, which attracts millions of holidaymakers.
She said: “Everything from takeaway cutlery, to tampons, nappies, laundry liquid packaging… you name it, I saw it.
“The currents gather all the ocean trash together after they flush out from the rivers.
“These same currents also brought the zooplankton that the manta rays are feeding on. So these poor mantas were trying to feed while swimming through a plastic soup.”
Thousands of tons of rubbish strewn in Indonesia’s rivers and waterways wash into the ocean after the rainy season.
Brooke, 26, who dives in the bay daily as a research assistant
MARINE RESEARCHER & DIVER
intern with the Marine Megafauna Foundation, said: “I had some guests diving with me at the time and I was embarrassed.
“Coming up from the dive my guests instantly were looking for someone to blame and asking why is no one doing anything about it. Its so easy to blame the governments, Another snap by scuba diver Brooke, right manufacturers and companies selling these products, who of course have some responsibility.
“I feel we should also start looking more at ourselves and what ways do we contribute to this problem.”
Brooke, from Melbourne, Australia, said the amount of plastic in the water was “overwhelming and incredibly depressing” at times.
She said: “It makes you feel helpless as you try to scoop up as much as you can on the dive knowing you’re barely making any difference.
“I grab plastic bags and packaging, straws and water cups out of the way of the mantas so they don’t swallow it.
“But as they are filter feeders, the micro plastics are really the problem here, which are often so small you can’t even see them. The sight of plastic floating around in the ocean is not uncommon. After wet season in Indonesia, around these islands
it is phenomenal.”
The mantas were trying to feed as they swam through the plastic soup BROOKE PYKE