When I saw this firsthand I felt a
mixture of emotions. I was saddened for
the marine life that having to live with
the consequences of our actions, I was
overwhelmed with the extent of how much
plastic was in the ocean and I couldn't
make a significant difference there and
then. I was also angry about that society
let it get to this extent.
I had the pleasure of working as a
diving structure which gave me a
lifestyle to travel around the world and
explore the underwater world. My
first-hand experience of plastic waste
was in Indonesia. I arrived at an island
called Flores and in the coastal town on
the side of the street would be gutters
and in the gutters I noticed that there
was plastic and the locals would be
burning their plastic waste there
because they don't have the same
infrastructure as we do to get rid of
any of their plastics.
Unfortunately the gutters flow straight
out into the ocean so when I went down
to the marina to board a vessel to go to
Komodo and the surrounding islands, I saw
the extent of how much plastic was in
the ocean  - it looked like a plastic soup.
From once we boarded the vessel
I went over to Komodo, I just wanted to
spend as much time in the water as
possible so between dives I would
snorkel around and it's one particular
time I saw an eagle ray for the first
time and we also had an encounter of a
manta train so the whole experience was
amazing but whilst it was all going on I
was having to dodge around plastics and
I was even getting tangled up in plastic
bags myself so I made the best effort to
take out any plastic I found. There was
way too much in the ocean out there.
I see myself making a difference with
plastic waste directly with the
environment I make sure that I least
attend one beach clean a month. This is
either as a volunteer or helping run the
events and I've done this a few times
with the North Wales Wildlife Trust. I've
also joined up with Plastic Free Bangor
who are in association with Surfers
Against Sewage and their mission is to
make Bangor plastic free city so it's
amazing to be a part of this.
So I chose to study at Bangor because
Wales is a beautiful country and what
makes a Bangor special is the mountain
range meets the coastline. So one day you
could be exploring the rocky shores and
then up hiking in the stony mountain
range so to have the essence of nature
right on your doorstep is what really
attracted me to Bangor. With regards to
the university itself, the Ocean Science
School is renowned for being one of the
best in the UK and for me studying a
Marine Biology degree this was the
perfect choice for me. And I also wanted
to attend a university that acted on
sustainability to help improve the
environment and this year Bangor itself
was ranked eighth in the world for its
commitments to sustainability and it's
amazing to be a part of that. I hope for
the future that the ocean will be clean
from plastic pollution and we can do
this by completely eliminating
single-use plastic and transitioning
from a throwaway culture that we
currently have to one where we take
value in reusable items. So our ocean is
vital for survival of life on our planet
and it is what makes Earth unique within
our solar system.
