It’s no secret that there’s a lot of trash and waste on our planet, especially in the ocean. People leave trash lying around after they are done hanging out on the beach, they don’t recycle, and they use much more plastic than they need. It’s a big issue, and if we don’t do anything about it, ocean and sea life is going to die out. Not to mention all the other environmental issues that might happen.

Recently a diver named Susan Prior found something intriguing on one of her diving adventures. She noticed a shiny, gold thing around one of the fish’s necks and later found out it was a gold wedding ring worth around £1,000. Susan remembered that someone posted about losing it, so she found the owner and returned it. Sadly, this isn’t the first time Susan has found something around the fish’s necks. Things like plastic collars from juice and milk bottles around ocean life’s necks are a common theme.

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Susan Prior enjoys diving around at this beach

Image credits: norfolkislandtime

While diving, Susan noticed something shiny around a fish’s neck. Later, she found out it was a wedding ring someone had complained they lost

Image credits: norfolkislandtime

“Yesterday, I saw another mullet with a ring collar, but this one looked a shiny metallic gold, with a lot less algal growth compared to the plastic ones (see righthand image). I recalled that someone had posted on our local community social media pages about a large man’s wedding ring that had gone missing in the bay earlier this year, so I decided to see if I could find the possible owner. It didn’t take long for my suspicion to be confirmed; we now have a poor mullet weighed down with someone’s (expensive) gold wedding ring,” Susan wrote in her blog.

This is not the first time Susan has found something like this around a fish’s neck. These two had plastic ones around theirs

Image credits: norfolkislandtime

“Back in February 2021, it was gut-wrenching to see a couple of sand mullet, Myxus elongatus, wearing plastic collars—those rings found on plastic juice and milk bottles. Sometimes these rings escape into the wild, and this is the sad consequence. Mullet snuffle through the sand looking for food, making it so easy for a ring or hair tie to flip over their noses and get stuck.”

Susan asks that you snip any rings or ring-shaped items before you throw them out!

Image credits: norfolkislandtime

Susan also mentioned that she finds much other waste and trash in the ocean. Golf balls are especially bad for the environment

Image credits: norfolkislandtime

“But it isn’t just about the immediate horror of seeing a fish being slowly strangled by our refuse. Earlier this week I found five golf balls in Emily Bay, all in the same vicinity, obviously deliberately driven into the bay. The following day I found another two.

A golf ball is a serious environmental hazard. As it breaks down, the core of rubber innards unravels. All 275 meters of it. This long elastic band floats, wrapping around seaweed and corals, while the outer core disintegrates into small micro-shards of plastic that are ingested by fish and plankton. Eventually, you will be eating this plastic.

And that is before you start talking about the chemicals used in the balls: zinc oxide, zinc acrylate, and benzoyl peroxide are all added to the mix when the balls are manufactured. When these leach into the marine environment, and they will, they are seriously toxic to marine life.”

Please be conscious and think about the ocean and the life in it. Every single step counts!

Image credits: norfolkislandtime

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