Divers find a reef covered in masks

(Journalist)
– The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the plastics scourge in the world’s oceans. Divers in the Philippines say after returning to coral reefs when a national lockdown was lifted, they were dismayed to find more plastic in the sea than they had ever seen before, including many surgical masks, reports the BBC. A dive professional said that in the first 10 minutes of a coral reef dive in Batangas, southeast of Manila, he collected at least a dozen masks from the reef, some of which were covered in seaweed and had clearly been there for months.

Environmental groups warn that the plastic inside the masks breaks down into microplastics, which are consumed by marine life. They urge the government to institute tighter controls for the disposal of medical waste. According to researchers, Manila alone produced an additional 280 tonnes of this waste per day during the pandemic. And the problem is global: Last year, in the first months of the pandemic, activists in France said they were finding large amounts of personal protective equipment in the Mediterranean and warned that there may soon be “more masks than jellyfish”, Guardian reports. They called on the public to adopt reusable masks instead of disposable masks. (Read more stories of face masks.)