I was once told that panic never leads to anything good and I agree..But if your house was on fire and you needed to stop everything you ever had from burning to the ground then some level of panic would be normal and indeed necessary. But what if I were to tell you that 40 per cent of the world’s ocean surfaces are currently made up of plastic and our current plastic production rates are expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050. Now may I ask you why aren’t we panicking?  The line between panic and emergency is becoming blurred concerning the health of this planet’s marine life. From a young age I have grown up around the ocean, and I have always felt captivated by our marine environment. Throughout my life, I have been able to experience pretty incredible things on the ocean such as cruising from places like the bay of islands all the way down to the pristine untouched Sounds of Fiordland in the South Island, along the way seeing countless marine species. But one of the most special experiences that stuck out to me would have been witnessing the ocean from an underwater perspective. From the moment you leap off the boat you’re submerged into a different world, utterly silent yet breathtakingly busy, there’s a mystery of no idea what you’re going to find. Being 15 meters below the surface of the ocean is the most thrilling yet coolest feeling ever, surrounding yourself with the local marine life you will never find anywhere else.I vividly remember the first time diving, when I came across stingrays at the bottom of the sea floor I stopped breathing, not through fear, but from sheer awe and wonder to witness such beautiful peaceful creatures as they glided along the bottom leaving me in there trail of dust. It’s moments like these that never make the ocean boring because no matter how many times you dip beneath the waves, you never know what you’re going to see. Or when you’ll see it. During my travels I have witnessed the beautiful things the ocean has to offer, but with seeing these beautiful things you also are exposed to the ugly. In the 15 years of my life I have witnessed first hand the effects of plastic pollution in our environments. Our plastic addiction and waste mismanagement is condemning countless marine birds and animals to death by entanglement or poisoning, and even leading to chemical contamination of the fish we eat. Vast swirls of plastic rubbish visible on the sea surface – horrifying as they are – represent just the tip of the iceberg. What lies beneath are the masses of microbeads and broken-down particles of plastic that are easily ingested by sea creatures, and impossible to remove. You’ve got to think is it all really worth it?By witnessing these affects first hand, you truly see the damage this is having on the marine life but also ourselves. For me I always looked at the problem as an issue but never really knew what I could do to help it. after a few conversations, interviews and video calls, I found myself in Auckland where I participated in the “BLAKE Inspire programme” that educated and promoted people like myself to make our generation the generation of change. Looking back on my experience one of the craziest things we undertook would have been doing a beach clean up on one of Auckland’s main beaches Okahu Bay. The beach looked tidy there were no first signs of any plastic or pollution but as we starting searching we found anything ranging from tennis balls all the way to microbeads. This showed that the plastic that is affecting our oceans doesn’t have to be noticeable because even one small microbead can kill a fish or other marine species. This is when I truly saw how bad this problem is getting.Now can i ask you want do you want for the future? I hope for change. I hope that future generations can experience what is at the moment unimaginable. I hope they can experience their lives in a world without pollution and vibrant marine life.We need to make change not only for our children but for the sake of all future generations.What we are doing now can soon no longer me undone.In this day and age change starts from us, from our generation. If this generation doesn’t then what generation will?