Travellers share photos of a national park one year apart
Travelling couple shocked after returning to famous ‘pink sand’ beach to find it covered in rubbish a year later – as they urge Instagram fans to STOP editing out litter
- Marie Fe and Jake Snow have been travelling the world together for years
- The couple, who are engaged, shared a photo of how damaging rubbish can be
- They had visited Pink Beach in the Komodo National Park last year to take a snap
- When they returned a year later it was littered with plastic bottles and debris
A travelling couple has shared a heartbreaking photo of a famous ‘pink sand’ beach covered in rubbish just one year after they visited its pristine shores in 2018.
German-born Marie Fe and Australian-born Jake Snow spent time at Indonesia’s famous Pink Beach in the Komodo National Park last year, snapping a beautiful photo of themselves lying back in the sand.
But just 12 months later their visit to the popular Instagram destination looked very different, with a similar snap showing plastic bottles, boxes and cups washed up on the beach beside them.
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The downside of popularity: Marie Fe and Jake Snow (pictured) took these photos just 12 months apart to show the catastrophic effects of washed up plastic on the beach
‘These two photos were taken in exactly the same spot one year apart from each other,’ they explained in an Instagram caption.
‘Even the most secluded and untouched beauties of the world like this Pink Beach in the Komodo Islands are being drowned in plastic.
‘We never imagined that upon return to our favourite beach in the world we would find such a disturbing scene. It really broke our hearts to see the amount of rubbish that had washed up on this once beautiful beach.’
They cautioned that this could be the future for other beaches if people continue to throw away single-use plastic at the rate that they are.
‘If we don’t act now, this will become a normality. Our beaches, our oceans and our world will be covered in plastic,’ they said.
The couple, who are engaged, even cautioned photographers and other Instagram influencers from Photoshopping these snaps – hiding the true extent of the problem.
‘Photoshopping the rubbish out wont fix the problem, showing the reality of what’s going on will,’ they wrote.
The romantic and aptly named Pink Beach is one of just seven pink beaches on the planet.
‘Photoshopping the rubbish out wont fix the problem, showing the reality of what’s going on will,’ they wrote
This exceptional beach gets its striking colour from microscopic animals called Foraminifera, which produces a red pigment on the coral reefs.
When the tiny fragments of red coral combine with the white sands, this produces the soft pink colour that is visible along the shoreline.
A number of social media influencers have visited the special place, encouraging others to book a trip, but this rubbish is washed up from neighbouring islands rather than being left behind by travellers.
The couple, who are engaged, even cautioned photographers and other Instagram influencers from Photoshopping these snaps – hiding the true extent of the problem
Where are the dirtiest beaches in the world?
1. Kamilo Beach, Hawaii
2. Juhu Beach, Mumbai, India
3. Guanabara Bay Beaches, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
4. Haina, Dominican Republic
5. Henderson Island, Pitcairn Islands Group, British Overseas Territories
Source: Oyster.com
Western Australia is lucky enough to have two pink lakes for locals to behold, Lake Hillier and Hutt Lagoon.
They get their colouring from carotenoid-producing (coloured) algae, and so far, haven’t been riddled by the same plastic problem. But that could change.
Australians alone spend $385 million each year on bottled water, use up to 10 million straws a day and 3.92 billion plastic bags each year.
The only way to curb the problem is to stop using plastic bottles, cups, straws and bags and instead opting for environmentally-friendly alternatives.
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