Himmafushi Lagoon
11 January, 2025
- Team Leader
- Adam Ashraf
- Number of Participants
- 21
- Total Debris Collected
- 574.06 kgs (measured)
4.30704, 73.565973
Survey Information
- Location Name
- Himmafushi Lagoon
- Organization/Dive Centre
- Maldivian Academy of Diving
- City
- Himmafushi
- Country
- Maldives
- Date
- 11 January, 2025
- Survey Duration
- 45 Minutes
- GPS Coordinates
- Latitude: 4.30704
Longitude: 73.565973
- Weather Conditions
-
Scattered rain with isolated heavy showers and thunderstorms.
- Survey Depth Range
- 4–7 meters
- Area Surveyed
- 2000 m2
- Dominant Substrate
- sand
- Ecosystem
- Lagoon
- Wave Conditions
- Calm (glassy to rippled) for waves 0 – 0.1 meter high
Debris Items Collected
| plastic materials collected | |
|---|---|
| Bags-grocery/retail (plastic) | 3 |
| Bags: Trash (plastic) | 2 |
| Beverage Bottles: 2 Litres Or More (plastic) | 6 |
| Beverage Bottles: Less Than 2 Litres (plastic) | 38 |
| Buckets, Drums & Jerrycans-2 Liters Or More | 8 |
| Caps & Lids (plastic) | 2 |
| Containers: Fast Food, Lunch Boxes & Similar | 1 |
| Cups, Plates, Forks, Knives, Spoons (plastic) | 1 |
| Fishing: Line | 3 |
| Fishing: Lures, Rods/poles | 1 |
| Foam Insulation & Packaging | 6 |
| Food Wrappers (plastic) | 5 |
| Furnishings (plastic) | 19 |
| Pipes (plastic-PVC) | 5 |
| Sheeting: Tarpaulin, Plastic Sheets, Palette Wrap | 2 |
| Plastic Fragments | 8 |
| glass materials collected | |
|---|---|
| Beverage Bottles (glass) | 8 |
| metal materials collected | |
|---|---|
| Appliances: Household | 11 |
| Beverage Cans (aluminium) | 23 |
| Cans: Food/juice, Other (tin) | 31 |
| Drums: 55 Gallon | 4 |
| Pipes & Rebar | 98 |
| Metal Fragments | 3 |
| rubber materials collected | |
|---|---|
| Tires/tyres | 213 |
| Rubber Fragments | 10 |
| wood materials collected | |
|---|---|
| Wood Fragments | 2 |
| cloth materials collected | |
|---|---|
| Bags (burlap) | 8 |
| Towels/rags | 17 |
| mixed materials collected | |
|---|---|
| Bricks, Cinderblocks & Chunks Of Cement | 36 |
| Entangled Animals | |
|---|---|
| Other Fish | |
| Species or Common Name | Gymnothorax thyrsoideus |
| Number Entangled | 3 |
| Status | released unharmed |
| Type of Debris | PVC Pipe |
| Comments | Found three white-eyed moray eels inside a beached PVC pipe. They were released safely back into the ocean. |
Additional Information
The survey area is a docking jetty for commercial fisher boats that drop off their catch to be weighed and purchased by the fish factories on the island.
A two-stove cooker.
Plastic packaging and bags, reflecting a convenience-driven lifestyle that is pervasive across the country.
Plastic tires, commonly used as fenders on boats, was a frequent find at the busy jetty with high traffic from fishing boats.
Plastic fishing lines left behind by anglers are a frequent debris at jetties across the country.
Comments and Feedback
During a dedicated three-hour ocean cleanup on 11 January Saturday, the team of divers successfully removed an impressive 574 kg of marine debris from a part of Himmafushi lagoon. While plastic made up the majority of items by count, rubber tires (214 kg) and metal (170 kg) outweighed the plastic (106 kg) by weight. We had the opportunity to deliver an awareness session to school students and the local population of the island. The session highlighted the scourge of plastic pollution, emphasizing the adverse effects of plastic fragmenting into microplastics, disrupting marine ecosystems, and eventually entering the food chain through fish and seafood. We advocated for responsible plastic use, encouraging the avoidance of single-use plastics and promoting the principles of reducing, reusing, and recycling.
Celebrating 40 years of service - including insurance for divers, dive centers, and dive professionals, DAN Europe’s Maldives' partner, Allied Insurance Company , kicked off the celebration of this milestone last weekend with Dive40—a Dive Against Debris survey supporting PADI AWARE’s mission to drive local action for global ocean conservation. Divers, often the first to witness the human impact on marine environments, are uniquely positioned to report, remove, and advocate for the prevention of marine debris at its source. By collecting and quantifying this data, Allied Insurance's CSR event contributes to the world’s largest underwater marine debris database, furthering efforts to protect our oceans.
