Photo © Courtesy of Clean Harbours Initiative
After 21 years diving the harbors and bays of Newfoundland as a sea urchin harvester, Shawn Bath had seen enough—enough fridges, tires, ropes, and fishing nets littering the ocean floor. Frustrated and driven to make a change, he launched the Clean Harbours Initiative in 2018 to combat the underwater pollution choking his home province’s coastal waters.
“I just figured the government was going to get on board once they saw the problem,” Shawn recalled. “I never thought it’d all fall on my shoulders.”
As a commercial diver, he harvested sea urchins for food, often from surfaces littered with old stoves, tangled fishing nets, and rusting appliances. But the turning point came when he realized no one else was coming to fix it.
“I thought, maybe the person who needs to start this is me.”
So he did. With nothing more than a dry suit, truck, and some rope, Shawn began hauling debris from the sea—alone. In his first year, he swam solo with tires tied to ropes, dragging them ashore, sometimes towing up to 20 at a time. Slowly, people took notice; divers joined, volunteers stepped up, and donations began to trickle in.
The Diving Point
Shawn quickly proved that this problem was real and that he was doing much more than just picking up ocean garbage. In fact, he was removing thousands of pounds of debris, including ghost nets that had silently snared marine life for decades.
But his efforts struck a nerve, particularly within the fishing industry. “The bulk of what we bring up is old fishing gear,” Shawn said. “Some people don’t want attention drawn to it because they fear more regulations.”
Shawn doesn’t place blame on the industry as a whole.
“Sixty percent of fishers are doing the right thing,” he emphasized. “But bad apples exist in every group.”
Lost gear is often an unfortunate byproduct of storms or strong tides—but in some cases, it’s dumped intentionally when it reaches the end of its lifespan. But this is a serious issue—Shawn has recovered nets that are 40 years old yet still strong enough to entangle whales, seals, and fish.
“We’ve seen whales drown in gear that was never recovered,” he explained. “People wonder where the whales are going—well, they’re going to the bottom.”
With clearer waters in winter, they dive year-round, using boats and surface teams to remove as much as possible before it breaks down into microplastics.
The Deep-Sea Problem
Despite limited funding, Clean Harbours continues to push forward, powered by volunteers, small donations, and sheer determination. People from all over Canada—and even as far as Australia—have contributed to help fuel this mission.
“We say: if you can’t clean a beach yourself, let us be your fins in the water,” Shawn said. “A donation for fuel or gear repair can turn into thousands of pounds of debris removed in your name.”
Shawn envisions a future where Clean Harbours operates daily and year-round, with multiple crews tackling pollution along the entire coast of Newfoundland.
“Newfoundland could be the first to take this seriously on a large scale,” he explained. “Imagine the impact. Imagine the tourism, the environmental leadership. We can show the world what it looks like to protect our oceans. One person with a love for the ocean can make a difference. But imagine what we could do with a team, some real funding, and the world watching.”
Japanese manicurist takes on plastic pollution, one nail at a time
Japanese manicurist Naomi Arimoto collects plastic waste from the sand at a beach in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, October 21, 2024. REUTERS/Manami Yamada By Tom
Making Waves: Coldplay Partners with The Ocean Cleanup to Save the Waters
Boyan Slat (Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup) with Coldplay © @AnnaLeeMedia By Raye Mocioiu Every year, an estimated 2.2 billion pounds of plastic
