For Immediate Release
11 March 2019
A group of Dutch divers, diving companies and the Plastic Soup Foundation are introducing a new hand signal for divers: the P for Plastic.
Every year, thousands of marine animals get caught in plastic or mistake plastic for food and die out of starvation. The plastic soup is also causing coral reefs to get sick because plastic works as a magnet attracting toxins. It’s a disaster for underwater life and a threat to what we love doing – diving!
Divers use underwater hand signals for squid, turtles and sharks, but not yet for the largest polluter in our ocean – plastic. If nothing changes, by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. As a diver, you are constantly confronted with the ongoing decay and damaged state of the sea and the coral reefs. This is why a group of diving companies and divers, together with the Plastic Soup Foundation, are introducing a new hand signal: The P for Plastic. This signal can be used by divers under water to let their buddies know that they see plastic and they want to pick it up. The goal of this hand signal is to encourage as many divers around the world to spread awareness and take action against the plastic plague that our ocean is facing right now.
Help us spread the word!
Find more information about what you as a diver, dive school or diving company can do to stop plastic pollution here: www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/divers.
This hand signal is an initiative of a wide group of Dutch diving companies (including a dive travel agent, dive school, gear supplier and a media platform), amateur divers and the Plastic Soup Foundation. The Plastic Soup Foundation’s mission is to have ‘No plastic waste in our water!’.
Manatees, whales, dolphins, sea lions, turtles, and many other animals are permanently at risk of dying from plastic in the sea. Oceana, an organization working to protect the ocean, has gathered data on this for the first time.
Increasingly, plastic waste is shredded and sold as fuel. It is a shortcut to get rid of plastic waste under the guise of recycling.
A new law in the U.S. must protect the ocean from plastic. The law only looks at waste management and not at plastic production. As a result, this law will overshoot its goal.
The average American uses so much plastic every year that the country contributes a lot to the plastic soup, even though it is collected. Also, what is counted as recycling can end up in the environment.
The dirty truth about cigarette filters