I started diving in 1999 and ever since then way back i have been diving mostly locally. During this time i have seen a major change in our local ocean environment. Things we took for granted when i started diving like Monck fish and big wolf eels on more or less every dive have become a rare pleasure to come upon during a dive today. Sometimes when i see people on the docks fishing for sport and fun i want to go up to them and tell them “there is nothing down there, You are wasting your time” but i off course don’t. I try to squeeze in at least one dive a week throughout the year. Some weeks I’m teaching courses and get numerous hours of dive time, other weeks I’m happy with a 45minute dive taking some pictures or just enjoying the pleasure of being under water. During the first lines here a picture of darkness i painted. Are the Norwegian fjords now empty? No not at all. There are still trout, schools of mackerels in the late summer, Pawls, Ghost Sharks, the occasional catfish and much more to see, I just make a note that the frequency of encounters are going down. Fishery both private and commercial is deeply embedded in the Norwegian culture and in some way a part of everyone who has grown up along the vast coastline of Norway. As a bi product of this long standing cultural heritage there are huge amounts of lost fishing gear along the coastline. In the start of 2015 the Norwegian Diving Federation who governs dive clubs in Norway made an incentive arrangement with the clubs for recovering and disposing of lost fishing gear.  Even thogh most of the clubs already took for granted that we pitch in and clean up lost traps and baits without getting anything else than a good conscience this sparked some major cleanup activities all around the country. We are still waiting for the official numbers but rumour has it that over 1600 traps and baits has been recovered in the first 10 months of 2015. I have seen on a very positive note that there has become less and less garbage in the fjords over the last 4 years. It seems clear that being environmentally friendly is a trend taking root.  If less and less trash is being deposited in to the ocean and more and more divers are coming together to clean up what’s already there we are getting mighty close to turning the tides of ocean pollution on a local level.