They don't show you this on the promo films!

[Umuntu]

Sea litterbugs are the same type of people as land litterbugs.

I live in some scenic countryside. And there's a local spot next to a river where "townies" park when they go for walks or walk their untrained mutts. I always find McDonald's cups and wrapping littering an otherwise pristine area. The nearest McDonalds being over 12 miles away !

People who live in the countryside don't do that. People who dive don't litter the sea.

 

[Schwob]

Sea litterbugs are the same type of people as land litterbugs.

I live in some scenic countryside. And there's a local spot next to a river where "townies" park when they go for walks or walk their untrained mutts. I always find McDonald's cups and wrapping littering an otherwise pristine area. The nearest McDonalds being over 12 miles away !

People who live in the countryside don't do that. People who dive don't litter the sea.

I sure wish that is true, even if in the big picture the litter of the diving community only makes a negligeble difference in all littering... and we seem to be doing a thing or two about awareness, although often by preaching to the quire....
but:
I am surprised to find in other areas how people loving a natural resource have no second thoughts in harming it ... and seeing that I sometimes wonder about the big picture in diving as well (allthough I suspect it might be better than the big picture in some other "sea using activities"):

For example, I every once in a while take part in a river clean up in a suburban area. Oh my, what you all find! No good image of people can form when you do that. One of the comparatively minor, but puzzling headscratchers is how popular fishing sites are littered by plastic bait buckets, all sorts of cups (strangely DD coffe cups are more popular there than all others), beer bottles and cans, cigarette butts galore, fishing line,... Not the worst thing to be found on the river but obviously left behind by people, who if you asked them might say they love the river.... but choose to not care and abuse and rape it nevertheless...
People are a strange and by far not always positively so "thing" when they think or know no one is watching...

 

[UFOrb]

I sure wish that is true, even if in the big picture the litter of the diving community only makes a negligeble difference in all littering... and we seem to be doing a thing or two about awareness, although often by preaching to the quire....
but:
I am surprised to find in other areas how people loving a natural resource have no second thoughts in harming it ... and seeing that I sometimes wonder about the big picture in diving as well (allthough I suspect it might be better than the big picture in some other "sea using activities"):

For example, I every once in a while take part in a river clean up in a suburban area. Oh my, what you all find! No good image of people can form when you do that. One of the comparatively minor, but puzzling headscratchers is how popular fishing sites are littered by plastic bait buckets, all sorts of cups (strangely DD coffe cups are more popular there than all others), beer bottles and cans, cigarette butts galore, fishing line,... Not the worst thing to be found on the river but obviously left behind by people, who if you asked them might say they love the river.... but choose to not care and abuse and rape it nevertheless...
People are a strange and by far not always positively so "thing" when they think or know no one is watching...

Yeah I’m always surprised and saddened to see how people can be so disrespectful to the areas in which they live, work and play. I guess some people don’t even care for or respect themselves.

A big part of the global picture is the woeful or complete absence of formal waste management in many parts of the world. For instance in SE Asia you see rubbish all over the place, including on private residential land. It sometimes gets collected up and burnt (which is another storey) but a lot of it ends up in water courses and eventually in the oceans. Also, the amount of unnecessary plastic packaging and plastic items in general is astounding. Eg, you can get drinks in small plastic bags with plastic straws from street vendors. There’s no real thought about the issues it causes.
I’m picking on SE Asia as the original post regards SE Asia and it’s somewhere I visit regularly, but I know it’s a global problem on many levels.

 

[flyboy08]

Dry riverbed throughout India are littered beyond belief!

 

[Rred]

"What do you think would happen if 100 tourists showed up"
Yes, all drinking bottled water in plastic bottles...
As Pogo said, "I have met the enemy and he is us."

 

[billt4sf]

P

lease use this photo, which is copyrighted (my mistake).

 

[billt4sf]

I really think that those of us who are tourists or longterm residents in Bali / Indo can have a larger affect that the locals, and not by picking up trash on the beach. We need to stop it at the source, and also effect a change in the culture.

Those who have lived here longer than I: Aren't the bureaucrats actually concerned about the loss of tourism dollars and Euros? Isn't the most effective place to put pressure on the government officials? Can't we do that with a simple demonstration campaign if it were covered by the international media? Am I correct in thinking that they would not want to be embarrassed by hassling us if we demonstrated? Which officials / ministries are the best ones to target?

- Bill

 

[UFOrb]

"What do you think would happen if 100 tourists showed up"
Yes, all drinking bottled water in plastic bottles...
As Pogo said, "I have met the enemy and he is us."

I stayed at a resort on Koh Lipe last year where they provide metal water bottles for every room which you just refill at the water cooler in the reception area to stop people buying plastic water bottles. Great idea & so simple

 

[boulderjohn]

Sea litterbugs are the same type of people as land litterbugs.

I think a lot of the people creating the trash have no idea it is happening.

When I dived in what seemed like landfills in Bali, the trash involved was mostly household trash, like plastic bags that once had held frozen food purchased in a market. My guess is the path it took was as follows: consumer uses the product>consumer disposes of it through community disposal service>Community disposal service picks it up>Community disposal service dumps it in the ocean, thus avoiding the fees associated with legal dumping>Community disposal service pays annual fee to officials who look the other way.

When I was last in the Akumal area in Mexico, unusual wind patterns brought piles of trash into Akumal Bay every day we were there. Workers were busy raking it up into huge piles. A quick glance showed that the trash was primarily from either cruise ships or resorts. A friend of mine took a cruise a few years ago and could not sleep one night, He went out to take a walk around 3:00 AM and was horrified to see the crew dumping huge bags of garbage into the ocean. I would bet that 90% of the passengers would be outraged to learn that their trash was going there.

 

[Dan]

It was just as bad as when I was there 4 years ago. I just cropped off the trash out of the Komodo parading on the beach then.