TORONTO -- It’s a popular place where the city and nature converge. Most people who visit Humber Bay do it from the land, but for Mark Turezki, the best views are underwater.
“I’ve been scuba diving since I was 10, but I only seriously got into it during the summer,” the 16-year-old told CTV News Toronto.
Diving is something he and his father do on vacations, but with no trips south this year, they’ve been exploring the Great Lakes.
Turezki says diving appeals to him because “it’s like the feeling of flying and you can move around these shipwrecks and stuff in three dimensions – it’s not just like looking at it, it’s being a part of it.”
Humber Bay is where he and his father did their dry suit training, and it’s also an easy spot for them to dive. But during a Sunday dive last weekend, Turezki noticed something was different.
“As we were swimming out we noticed that there were these huge fields of garbage.”
Underwater videos taken from Turezki’s GoPro camera show a field of trash strewn across the lakebed. He says he saw beer cans, shopping bags, and plenty of disposable masks and gloves.
“I don’t really even know the true extent of it,” Turezki said. “But even what was there in the immediate visible area, it’s like ridiculous.”
Turezki says he believes the trash is litter, left along the shoreline by people walking or enjoying the parkland – litter picked up by the wind and deposited in the lake.
“Definitely there isn’t someone coming down with a big dump truck and specifically dumping there. I think honestly it’s just people who maybe don’t really realize that the wind can pick up or think maybe someone else will clean it up.”
Turezki posted a video of his underwater find on YouTube in the hopes of bringing attention to an issue most people can’t see. And he hopes people will get the message – “just clean up after yourselves really. There’s a garbage can right there, it’s not too hard to pick it up.”
In the hopes that he and other divers can get back to seeing the treasure of the lake – and not just the trash.
