Out of sight does not mean our garbage magically disappears.. That is true for our garbage on land and even more so for our garbage on the seafloor.

It is more than two years since the MSC ZOE lost 342 containers close to the Wadden UNESCO world heritage site.

Today, approximately 800.000 kg of cargo, coming from around 40 containers, is still missing (including dangerous cargo) out of a total of 3,2 million kg that was lost to the sea.

The first week of the "Duik de Noordzee Schoon" expedition 2020 has been successful, though impacted by heavy winds.

Multiple days were spent out on wrecks in the Wadden area looking for MSC Zoe trash, other days were cancelled due to wave hights.

Here is a short list of all stuff we found on the seafloor:

Different types of clothing, fishing chairs, electronic kettles, razor blades, cooking pans, belts, bathrobes, blankets (even one with a leopard print, an awkard find underwater I must say..).

Recently a 3m bottlenose dolphin has made the headlines in the Netherlands.

The dolphin paired up with an engineless cargo vessle named "Tres Hombres" 3 days prior to arriving in the Netherlands.

The Fairtrade sailing vessle was on the final leg of its 2 month voyage to the Dominican Republic where it picked up Rum and Cacao for the European market.

There are lessons in every disaster. 

We humans are able to learn from things that do not play out we want them to go and prevent from making the same mistakes again.

Are we actually practising this enough? Probably not.

During our recent visit to the Azores we were notified of the fact that the artisanal longline fishery for kitefin sharks had some very visual remainders on the island.

Recently our latest article has been published in Duiken Magazine.

It addresses the switch the Azoreans have made from hunting whales to providing ecotourism in the form of whalewatching.

The whaling industry sparked interest in the Azorean community due to American whalers that visited the islands in a stopover during their global voyages.

We all know it by now.

We all have heard about the plastic soup, but for some it is quite an abstract phenomenon.

For us it is very confronting to be faced with the (mostly plastic) mess that we humans have entered the ocean each time we go out to sea.

Everyday we pick up plastic while we are out there.

It is not only on the surface that we encounter it, like this tern using a discarded flipflop as a resting platform.

Our trip back to the Azores has come and gone so fast! It was so great to be back on Pico to meet up with old friends and new.

We felt privileged to be part of the CW Azores family once more.

This time we got a great impression of how the islands made their transition from the whaling days into being an example of what ecotourism looks like nowadays.

I am happy to share the publication of our article "Dolphins of the Bahamas" in magazine DUIKEN.

Pick up your hard copy in stores now!

The article tells the story of two different species of dolphins in these warm and clear waters.

Having visited the Bahamas and Bimini in particular multiple times now I can honestly say it is high, high up my list of favorite places in the world.

During our stay in Canada it became clear that it isn´t only fun and games for the sealions.

Steller sealions are still listed as "Near Threatened" under the IUCN Red list for endangered animals since the commercial harvesting of these animals stopped decades ago.

Seasonal and yearly fluctuations in abundance of prey due to overfishing and the danger of being caught as by-catch or shot by fishermen are not making their lives easy.

Also the risk of getting entangled in fishing gear or other marine debris seems to be affecting these animals.

I am happy to share that images of our time with Steller sealions have been published in the media recently.

The Daily Mail published a story including Video.

Also, the Guardian placed a double page spread in their newspaper: