This is the shocking moment a scuba diver was faced with an underwater torrent of plastic pollution at one of the world’s popular dive spots.
Dive master and instructor Luis Manzano, 38, had just plunged into the water off the coast of Anilao in the Philippines on August 27 when he was confronted with the pollution.
Hundreds of plastic bags, crisp packets and scraps of plastic waste were floating in the idyllic waters – one of the world’s most popular and beautiful diving locations.
Dive master and instructor Luis Manzano, 38, was faced with an underwater torrent of plastic pollution off the coast of Anilao in the Philippines, in one of the world’s most popular dive spots
Luis scooped up some of the rubbish and laid it out on the boat to show the extent of the problem but he admitted ‘all the clean ups in the world won’t solve this problem’.
The scuba diving fanatic said: ‘This was the scene after one dive. See the amount of plastic and trash we have in our waters, we are better than this everyone.
‘This is what is happening to our oceans. This was the amount of plastic pollution we picked up after just one dive.
‘Please be more responsible with your trash. All the clean up dives in the world won’t do anything unless we dispose of garbage the right way. We have a problem.’
Hundreds of plastic bags, crisp packets and scraps of plastic waste were floating in the idyllic waters – one of the world’s most popular and beautiful diving locations
Anila is seen as one of the best diving locations in the Philippines and Asia but it has also been blighted by the increasing effects of pollution in the region’s oceans
Anila is seen as one of the best diving locations in the Philippines and Asia but it has also been blighted by the increasing effects of pollution in the region’s oceans.
In a report in 2015 by campaign group Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, the Philippines was listed among five Asian countries which accounted for around 60 per cent of the plastic waste leaking into the oceans.
Other top offenders were China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.
While in 2017, Greenpeace found that the Philippines is the third top contributor of plastic waste in the ocean, behind China and Indonesia.
The charity said that about a truckload of plastic ends up at sea every minute.
The scuba diving fanatic said: ‘This was the scene after one dive. See the amount of plastic and trash we have in our waters, we are better than this everyone’
Luis scooped up some of the rubbish and laid it out on the boat (pictured) to show the extent of the problem but he admitted ‘all the clean ups in the world won’t solve this problem’