Philippines 12 Sep 2018 17:00
Plastic pollution is choking the world's oceans. Every year, around 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in our oceans (UNEP). But this is causing problems not only in far-distant waters, affected by the so-called plastic soup, but also in the small-scale communities that fish near the shore. In Navotas, a fishing community in the Manila Bay, in the Philippines, fishermen have seen a drastic drop in their catches after a dumpsite was opened in 2013 in a coastal area nearby. Today their community is also filled with the trash coming from the dumpsite and most of the fish have disappeared. Their livelihoods are also threatened by other climate change related events, such as the increasing number of storms, as well as the competence from industrial fishing boats. We spent a day with the community, documenting how the trash is affecting them and talked to several fishermen about how their catches have been reduced and how this is affecting their livelihoods. We also talked to a representative of the fishermen in the Philippines and activists from Greenpeace.
