Incredible Black Lab Dedicates Her Life to Diving for Plastic in the Ocean
Plastic is overtaking the oceans and coastlines at an alarming rate. But one pup is doing her part to cut down on this pollution and make oceans around the world a place that everyone can enjoy again.
4Ocean is a company dedicated to cleaning up oceans and coastlines that have been littered with plastic. This global operation has helped 27 countries, but it has not done it alone, according to a video posted on the Facebook page of the science and exploration website Seeker.
A 7-year-old black lab named Lila is making the oceans a little cleaner by using her swimming skills to dive deep for plastic.
The dog has a particular knack for picking up trash along the coastline. Her owner and co-founder of 4Ocean, Alex Schulze, has made it all possible.
He trained Lila to dive from a boat into the ocean in search of plastic that is polluting the water. Lila loves the task and can fetch items as deep as the ocean floor.
Check out the video describing 4Ocean’s work, and showing Lila’s role in it.
Don’t worry. She is protected with a reflective vest that has some buoyancy to keep her safe.
Schulze is not alone in his efforts. His partner in 4Ocean, Andrew Cooper, is also in on the clean ocean mission, according to the video.
Together, along with a dedicated crew, Schulze and Cooper, with Lila by their side, comb the sand and water for littered plastic.
“For me, the situation is bad,” Maria Amenabar, research assistant for 4Ocean, said on the video. “There is a lot of plastic around. We see everyday plastic floating, and there’s a lot of plastic we don’t see.”
They turn this debris into recycled plastic bracelets that help to fund their company, according to the video. The bracelets are sold at $20 a piece and make for an ingenious way to reuse what others have left behind.
One pound of plastic is used in the making of each bracelet.
4Ocean also pays fishermen to pick up plastic instead of catch fish, the video states – all in an effort to keep the coastlines and oceans free of plastic.
According to the video, the idea behind the project came when Schulze and Cooper took a surf trip to Bali. Here, they saw plastic littering the beaches and water, much to their dismay. They then decided they had to do something about it.
The 4Ocean team has helped to collect 1 million pounds of plastic to date, the video states.
4Ocean is certainly doing their part to make the environment clean again by using every resource available to them – even a smart lab named Lila, who makes cleaning up the plastic easier for all.
Thank you, 4Ocean and Lila, for making the world a better place, one piece of plastic at a time.
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