Dubbed Scubasura, a group of Stairway youth and scholars, who are all licensed open water scuba divers since 2016, took the initiative to do a cleanup of the coral reef at our local beach.
The Philippine waters face many challenges in terms of cleanliness and we all know that one of the major contributors of this problem is trash.
Rubbish caused by human consumption, affects the health of the marine wildlife and the livelihood of those who depend on it; plastics are being eaten by the turtles and fishes resulting to their distressing shortened lifespan and dramatic reduction of population. A filthy shore also gives negative impact to tourism which is one of the important sources of the economic expansion to some of the country’s archipelagic communities. The more trash we throw onto the seas, the more it is difficult and costly to remove.
The divers collected 30 kilos of garbage– a very disturbing indicator of the desperate need to spread awareness and appreciation of our environment in our local community.
Despite this amount of trash does not even equate to the tip of the iceberg in comparison to the whole of earth’s ocean problems on plastics, this has helped the locals to reflect on their own habits that affect the waters and encourage the people to participate in clean up dives may be it initiated by local government or private sectors. We should all take responsibility and accountability; fight with us to achieve our vision of trash-free seas.
Contributed by Denise Cabanban
Video created by Sarah Staub