By. Anuradha
The destruction that we have caused our mother earth cannot be explained by words. despite the awareness programs and restrictions imposed by various governments around the world, still people are dumping tons of garbage to earth and most of this trash ultimately ends up in oceans. Even though most of us feel quite happy once our trash is out of our site, it has become a huge problem for the lives of marine animals living in the sea. Day by day, many animals are dying either by consuming these plastic and polythene trash or by facing other consequences caused by them. conservationists estimate that the waste count exceeds over 260,000 tons and if these inhuman practices continue, surely we will lose our wildlife shortly.
However, we are going to tell you an awe-inspiring story that will teach you how exactly we should take care of oceans. Pall Sigurdsson and some other divers in Lembeh, Indonesia recently came across a baby octopus who was using a plastic cup as its shell. The baby octopus was stick to the cup and refused to give up it. however, Pall and his friends wanted to help the little fellow to find a natural habitat and they offered him many shells hoping that the guy would pick one of those.
Image Credit & More Info: Pall Sigurdsson
This baby octopus was a Veined Octopi and this species is born with the instinct to protect themselves and with the absence of natural materials, most of them quickly pick up plastic cups and other materials lying on the sea bed. This does not only make the octopus easy prey for the predators because of the transparency of the cup but also the predators who consume octopus ultimately end up consuming plastic too. The worse thing is that these predators are once again eaten by large predators and thus continue the plastic cycle causing much harm to the biodiversity of ocean beds.
Speaking about his experience Pall said that,
“This was our third dive that day, and we were all starting to get a little bit tired. My dive buddy sent me a hand signal indicating that he had found an octopus and asked me to come over for help.”
I am no stranger to seeing octopi making homes out of trash. They are clever animals and use their environment to their advantage, and trash is a permanent part of their environment now,” continued Sigurdsson. “However the octopus with its soft tentacles did not know that this cup offers virtually no protection, and in a competitive environment like the ocean, this cup was a guaranteed death sentence.”
Further speaking about his diving experiences, Pall also added that,
“There are good days, and bad days are depending on ocean currents. Some days, you see so much trash that it is almost impossible to film sea creatures without also including trash.”
“I try as hard as I can to make people see the ocean when it looks its best. Once I saw a family of anemonefish living next to a corroded battery. That was heartbreaking,” sighed Sigurdsson.
“Most trash (including plastic) sinks. Most people only talk about the parts that they can see. The part that floats, but that’s just scratching the surface of the problem. Plastic straws are a minuscule part of the problem”.
Here is the full video of the incident:
So, If you enjoyed the pictures and the full video of the incident. Share this among your friends and make them aware of the reality of our ocean bed.
