19OCT12: With a change in winds here on Bunaken there has been lots of trash carried from the mainland. Over the last 6 weeks we have collected 3 or 4 kg of trash a week from the dive sites of Bunaken and we have inputted this data on to the Project Aware (My Ocean) database. In the last 2 days alone we collected 5kg from 2 of the major divesites, the majority of this being plastic bottles and plastic bags.

Today we decided to do an extra beach clean up, from the beach in front of the resort, walking toward the pier. 6 of our staff spent an hour collecting 6kg of debris from the beach and mangrove areas which included 137 plastic bottles, 159 plastic bags and 48 rice bags! We also discovered an area of asphalt (thick oil) which we reported to the National park Office. They have since been tracking a boat they saw in the waters yesterday which they think may have been responsible for leaking this liquid.

Other dive centres saw our efforts once more this morning and have decided to hold their own weekly clean ups as well. Furthermore since the problem of plastic trash has been highlighted to Bunaken village, the local government officials are in the process of finding land and early planning stages for a recycling plant. All good news and by continuing our own efforts here at Two Fish Bunaken, we hope the problem of marine debris will start to reduce.