Show the Love!

Anyone know what this bird is? It looked like an immature seabird of some kind, but I have no idea what. We were at Gunung api, a small volcanic island in the middle of the Banda Sea, when this little bird flew onto the deck of our boat. Do you see the tattoo on the hand of one of our divers? This bird knew where to find the love!

Water Texture

Since it has been raining here in Southern California, I thought I’d post this picture from our Forgotten Islands trip. Watching the rain hit the surface of the water from below is very interesting. Such interesting texture.

My Favorite!

I just have to post this pic. The kids at the Forgotten Islands were so cute and I was having so much fun that I took a couple of selfies. This one with my little champion is one of my all time favorites.

3 R's for Our Mother Ocean: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Thank you for joining Ocean Safari’s TEAM GO GREEN! We have a special thank you gift at the end of this article.

 


 

Did you know that 1 million seabirds and 100,000 turtles and marine mammals die every year because of trash in the ocean?1 80% of the marine debris originate from land - garbage that escapes trash bins and ends up in the storm drain.2

You may have heard of the so called Garbage Patch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Contrary to what you might think, it’s not really a floating island of trash. It’s a concentrated soup of plastic bits like someone dumped a huge load of confetti into our ocean.2 Plastic isn’t biodegradable. It just breaks into smaller and smaller pieces until you have microplastic particles. And these plastic bits float with the current just like plankton, and marine life that eat plankton consume a lot of microplastic. And in turn, we eat seafood full of plastic! On top of that, we are also ingesting plastic through our drinking water -- microplastic fibers have been found in tap water in many countries, including the US.3 Plastic bits can break down into nano particle size, and they can’t be filtered out. Plastics used for drinks and food storage can leach harmful chemicals - that’s why disposable plastic bottles say “do not refill.” These chemicals, including BPA and phthalates may cause infertility, early or delayed puberty, increased risk of obesity and diabetes, and create behavioral problems like ADHD, aggression, altered social skills, and memory loss.4

Sam Yang, an Ocean Safari diver and friend for many years, is the owner of VAST, a surfing apparel company. Sam has been using his brand’s platform to spread awareness about ocean conservation and the amount of plastic trash that is affecting marine life. VAST has conducted trash cleanup initiatives and collected 5 tons of trash each time! But no matter how much trash we pick up from our beaches, the waves will wash up more. The best thing for us to do is to reduce the amount of one-time use items and reuse whatever we can. One small step is declining to use straws at restaurants - think about how many hundreds of millions of these single-use plastic tubes get thrown out just in the US every day!

Last year, the Ocean Safari staff pledged to minimize waste by bringing our own reusable dishware on our boat trips. This year, we hope that our community will also join our effort to minimize the use of disposable items. When you come on our boat trips, we urge you to bring your own reusable plate and utensils. Ocean Safari wants to be at the forefront of stand up against disposable waste in the diving community. This is the bare minimum we can do. Even if it’s not for the health of the ocean, do it for your own health.

Will YOU join us on our initiative to reduce the amount of disposable items we buy and use?

Here is a 30% off coupon code below to use at VASTLIFE.COM. Get yourself some nice beach wear and support Sam’s company and Ocean Safari Outdoors in our ocean conservation efforts!

Go to VASTLIFE.COM

Use coupon code: clean_ocean_vastxosdt35 (good through August 2018)

 

Sources:

1. https://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/management/marine/marine-parks-wa/398-marine-park-protectors?showall=&start=3

2. http://garbagepatch.net/greatpacificoceangarbagepatchfacts/

3. https://orbmedia.org/stories/Invisibles_plastics/multimedia

4. http://iciscenter.org/plastics-and-their-impacts-on-human-health/

Proof of Enlightenment!

I have been wondering… Can you attain enlightenment when you reach a certain point in diving? I captured this rare proof of such a phenomenon at Forgotten Islands, Indonesia. My good friend, Dive Master Sam Yang, was seen with a bright halo around his head!

All kidding aside, I think this is a pretty cool photo :)