If we only imagine the ocean, what do we see in our minds eye?

When we imagine ocean pollution and marine debris, what do we envision?

We often visualize what we’ve seen in photos:

Floating plastic bottles.

Sea Turtles trying to bite floating plastic bag(s), tragically mistaking the trash bag for the turtle’s natural food, jellyfish.

Maybe nothing. Maybe we’ve never seen the ocean. Maybe life is so stressful that we cannot care or comprehend anything other than keeping our jobs and paying our rent and bills. I understand that life can be complicated and entangling.

Boundless sounds so beautiful, until our freedom binds and suffocates beauty.

We’ve all seen the wonder of wild flowers like dandelions, busting through the concrete sidewalk. Nature will always try to decorate as an example that we can overcome all challenges.

Image by Martina Liel from Pixabay

Maybe you’ve never seen those wildflowers. Perhaps now you will. You’re aware.

Cleaning nature is an awareness that for me, has grown with time. I know that if I see trash on the streets of Los Angeles, it will end up in the LA River and the LA River goes right into the ocean.

Random parking lots can be gateways to the ocean. I saw a woman once in a parking lot of a strip mall and she was putting her packages into the trunk of her car. One of her empty shopping bags blew away, and it went under a different car in the parking lot. She closed her trunk and drove away. She didn’t litter on purpose. She had no idea that bag might end up in the ocean. I knew the LA river was close-by so I made sure I found a way to retrieve the bag and dispose of it properly.

Coral reefs are very precious environments on our planet. Earlier this year I was SCUBA diving in the ocean and I have a very keen eye in nature to identify things, especially something that does not belong. Sometimes I spy a straight line, or plastic, or a bright color of a soda bottle. I was overwhelmed when I saw so much fishing trash embedded in, and strangling the coral reefs. I could see it everywhere.

I spent my time during that dive, over an hour, very carefully unraveling the entangled coral reefs. I’d see a line and then I’d trace it with my vision. Often there was a ball of tangled line, other times dangerous gear (giant sharp barbed fishing hooks) attached. Sometimes the coral had grown over so I could only cut the line but not free the coral without damaging it. It was careful work. It was exactly like unraveling a huge complex problem. Some sections of reefs were connected to other sections of reefs, bound together by tight lines of fishing debris. I will return to this place and continue my work. This is a huge problem!

Fishing line is also called monofilament (a single man-made fiber line). Many dismiss a fish’s ability to want to live, or think, yet this line is transparent for a reason. Fish can see and avoid it. If we make this effort to trick them, we should consider that they are conscious enough to try to avoid dying.

Anyway, fishing will sadly continue but worse than that, fishing debris will last 6–12 times our lifetime.

Monofilament fishing line is not recyclable and can continue destroying for over 600 years.

The world’s coral reefs are in danger. They have other problems like coral bleaching, climate change, gross pollution and more. There are people trying to grow coral and there are other places in the world where artificial reefs are created with researched foundation structures.

Fishing debris is not that. Marine pollution, especially lines and nets are dangerous to everyone including beach lovers and ocean inhabitant including recreational swimmers. Fishing garbage is creating yet another terrible obstacle for the coral reefs. When I see the fishing debris underwater sometimes it has become a limiting suffocating part of the reef, often connecting multiple reefs between patches of sandy bottom looking like big tripwires. Binding and inhibiting everything on the reef, each line, for 600 more years.

The ocean has conditions that move this debris. Imagine planting a flower or vegetable garden and then allowing a crane to drop a huge thick tangled lead weighted net full of sharp hooks over it, and then experiencing a hurricane. The storm would expand the damage of the broken lines and hooks which could blow to the other parts of your garden as well. Would you expect your flowers and vegetables to grow and bloom through and over this mess? We’re not helping the corals, hard and soft and sponges succeed.

Many corals and invertebrates are filter feeders and they either siphon in the water to feed or they are naturally sticky. These properties make them even more susceptible to trash collection. Let’s not forget all the tiny cutie fish that live in the reef and inside/with these invertebrates such as anemones as well. There is a huge variety of mature and baby sea life that surrounds this tangle of trouble.

Coral can be gorgeous colors but they are actually animals and so much more. Human breathing air depends on oceanic invertebrates and plankton. No matter if we live near the ocean or have ever seen the ocean, it’s a fact. The ocean creates more breathing air for us than trees or forests, and the invertebrates are part of this critical equation. Corals and plankton have a wonderful relationship where the coral supplies what the plankton’s needs for photosynthesis, and the algae also creates the stunning colors of the corals. Beyond pretty, we depend on that photosynthesis for the air we breathe anywhere on land on our planet(not just the coast).

Like our dandelion-growing-from-the-sidewalk-example the hard coral, soft coral and sponges will attempt to grow on and around it the lines, but it’s creating an unwelcome and unsuitable foundation by deforming, cutting, and tearing the animals.

It’s like strangling our home garden, and preventing the plants from getting soil, sunlight or the water they need to thrive.

Now take a deep breath or two, relax and visualize that delicious air being a gift to you from the ocean.

Photo by Bedis ElAcheche from Pexels

I love technology but with it also comes responsibility. With today’s technology including fish finders, etc. fishes from whales to minnows have few places to hide. I’ve started the Ocean Protection League because we have to come together to educate each other and protect the oceans for ourselves, for the critters and for our future generations.

Ocean Protection League’s Mission: To inspire, teach and share about the ocean and the ocean’s inhabitants so together we learn to protect the ocean, as we cannot love what we do not know.

I wanted to write to you my personal account of what I have seen recently, and while I’ve seen and saved many entangled animals as well over the years, I think it’s important to mention the invertebrates and coral reefs because they are struggling and we have to help them thrive.

Movie? To further understand corals, from Michele and Howard Hall, this is my long time favorite ocean/coral movies..and you can see an excellent time-lapse example of coral bleaching here at 1:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot8vTJkx4bc

With Ocean Protection League and your support I will endeavor to personally clean up the oceans.

Like what I do? Want to support Ocean Protection League with Michele the Trainer?

If you want to help, please share this post. Thank YOU!

· Love the Ocean? Visit Ocean Protection League on FB

· Love the Ocean? Visit Ocean Protection League on Instagram

· Love the Ocean? Receive Updates