As many social feeds are recently showing, the growing amount of plastic waste is readily evident in our daily lives. From the infamous video of good samaritans pulling a plastic drinking straw from the nose of a sea turtle, to the 2016 report showing that by 2050 our oceans will contain more weight in plastic waste than fish, it’s becoming apparent, and frankly hard to ignore, that people’s obsession with disposable plastic products is a problem.
Author: Alex Lichtblau
Alex Lichtblau
I first learned to dive in the Galapagos Islands in 2011 and was instantly hooked, both to diving and to the underwater world in general. I grew up in the Arizona desert, and studied Ecology there as well, and I now relish the opportunity to spend my time in the water. Diving has been my profession for the last 3 years; I guided and taught courses for 2 years in the Caribbean, and have recently switched gears to the ever-more diverse and vastly different Indo-Pacific. When I’m not giving people an inside look at life underwater, I love hiking, spicy food, karaoke, and good dad-jokes.
They are my favourite thing to see in the water. If you’re coming from Part 2: Interview with a Shark Attack Survivor, you might ask why sharks are my favourite given the damage one inflicted to my friend Diego. My answer is because sharks are not the monsters people think they are. Check out Part 1: Dive With Sharks…It’s the Safest Thing You’ll Do All Day, where you’ll see that man’s other best friend, dogs, are more likely to kill you than sharks.
Allow me to introduce Diego Intriago; a good friend of mine from the Galapagos, avid surfer, diver and ocean lover who survived a shark attack. I narrowly missed the chance to be with him during the incident because my surfboard suffered a fracture the day before the incident. I had to pass up on what would have been the surfing day of a lifetime. But this isn’t my story, it’s Diego’s. Here’s what happened and how Diego feels nearly four years after the incident.
When asked what they are afraid of when they get in the ocean, many people will say sharks. When asked what they would most like to see in the ocean, those who have been in the water with sharks will likely say sharks. So why the disparity?