3rd Place Conservation

Brooke Lori Pyke

"Plastic Soup"

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The Story: It’s almost three years since I moved to live in Indonesia on a small Island called Nusa Lembongan. On the neighbouring island Penida, we have a healthy population of Reef Mantas all year around. This particular day out diving in Manta Bay was to become a dive I would never quite forget. It was the end of wet season so I was used to seeing clouds of trash float by after its washed from the rivers around Indonesia into the sea. But this was something completely different than what I’d seen before. The Manta’s on this dive were attempting to filter feed in this plastic soup floating near the surface. Which obviously also contained the zooplankton they crave for that is carried around by the same currents that brought the plastic. It was an immensely eye opening moment for everyone I was diving with at the time. The contents of the plastic soup contained all number things such as food packaging, plastic cups, spoons, straws, nappies and sanitary products. The most worrying thing which perhaps can’t bee seen so easily in this photo was the amount of micro plastics. Tiny particles of plastic mimicking the zooplankton, which were very easily getting swallowed by the filter feeding Mantas. In a desperate rush we all began to fill our BCD pockets with as much trash as we could gather. There was just so much and it left you feeling helpless and heart broken. I knew this was an important moment to document as words can not describe what we witnessed accurately. I just hope my images of these moments can be shared so more people can become aware of this deadly ghost that is currently drifting around the ocean

Location:  Nusa Penida, Bali, Indonesia

Equipment Used:  Olympus TG5 Camera, Olympus PT-058 Housing, Dyron Wide Angle Lens, 

Camera Settings: 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100

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