My birthplace and home, the Philippines, is a country blessed with many wonders. We have some of the best beaches in the world, and we are part of the Coral Triangle, the center of marine biodiversity.

Sadly, we are also also among the top polluters of plastic waste in oceans. A couple of weeks ago, a video of mostly plastic trash floating in El Nido's Secret Lagoon was uploaded to the internet, and became viral. The local community's reaction was very encouraging, though. A cleanup was immediately organised, and the local government declared that starting 1st September, plastic containers such as single-use water bottles would be banned on island hopping boat tours.

I decided to contribute in my own small way. Paradise Beach, a popular dive site for beginners, also gets its share of garbage from tourism activities. So my fellow instructor Abel and I got our students together to conduct a little Dive Against Debris survey. 

Not only was it lots of fun for the divers, but it was very educational as well. We learned that we can all do our part to help save our Ocean Planet. We just have to be more aware of what we consume and use, and how we can reduce the trash that we produce. And of course, we can make every dive count by collecting and reporting any pieces of garbage that we encounter.  

To see our data from this survey: https://www.projectaware.org/debris-data/paradise-beach-el-nido

To learn more about El Nido's plastics ban: https://www.spot.ph/newsfeatures/the-latest-news-features/74947/el-nido-plastic-ban-a00258-20180830