#folkpåUiB

Justine Siegwald

PhD Candidate at the Department of Natural History and member of the student dive club, SUB-BSI

"I am always shocked at the general amount of garbage that we find under water. When we dive closer to populated areas like Vågen, we encounter massive amounts of plastic bags, cups, metal, electronics and lately also face masks just to name some. Last year we even found a disco ball and a dildo - so there’s really no limit. What also surprises me is the determination that must be needed to throw some of the heavier items in the sea. Disposing of washing machines and furniture responsibly would most probably take equal or less effort, so I find it rather strange. It’s depressing to see how much trash there is, and a lot of the items are not even possible to retrieve by hand, because they disintegrate into millions of tiny pieces after staying in the water too long. That’s why these regular clean-up dives are important, as well as reminding people that pollution is a problem that will not resolve itself."