Main Menu
Join Undercurrent on Facebook

The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975 | |
For Divers since 1975
The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975
"Best of the Web: scuba tips no other
source dares to publish" -- Forbes
X
May 2023    Download the Entire Issue (PDF) Vol. 49, No. 5   RSS Feed for Undercurrent Issues
What's this?

A New Dive Site? It's Garbage!

from the May, 2023 issue of Undercurrent   Subscribe Now

Subscriber Content Preview
Only active subscribers can view the whole article here

In the '80s, the Lembeh Strait in Indonesia was considered nothing more than a place for the residents of nearby Bitung to dump garbage. But guide Larry Smith started muck diving at Kungkungan Bay, and the rest is history.

The 80,000-ton floating reef of plastic and trash, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is an environmental disaster. Twice the size of Texas and floating between California and Hawii, it is also teeming with life.

Researchers from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center have discovered 484 marine invertebrates from 46 species clinging to the detritus. They also fished out toothbrushes, rope, and bottle shards studded with gooseneck barnacles and jet-black sea anemones glistening like buttons. Anemones protect themselves with grains of sand, but in the garbage patch, they were covered in seed-like microplastics. Many other hitchhikers were coastal species that had discovered a way to thrive in the wide-open Pacific....


Subscribers: Read the full article here


Get more dive info like these and other important scuba updates sent monthly to your email.
And a FREE Recent Issue of Undercurrent

Free Undercurrent Issue
Get a free
monthly email and
a sample issue!

 

;

I want to get all the stories! Tell me how I can become an Undercurrent Online Member and get online access to all the articles of Undercurrent as well as thousands of first hand reports on dive operations world-wide


Find in  

| Home | Online Members Area | My Account | Login | Join |
| Travel Index | Dive Resort & Liveaboard Reviews | Featured Reports | Recent Issues | Back Issues |
| Dive Gear Index | Health/Safety Index | Environment & Misc. Index | Seasonal Planner | Blogs | Free Articles | Book Picks | News |
| Special Offers | RSS | FAQ | About Us | Contact Us | Links |

Copyright © 1996-2024 Undercurrent (www.undercurrent.org)
3020 Bridgeway, Ste 102, Sausalito, Ca 94965
All rights reserved.

cd