Paul Johnson, an underwater photographer who lives in Hawaii, was on a diving cruise of Pokai Bay last month he came across the potentially devastating consequences of marine pollution. While diving about 328 feet offshore in search of spinner dolphins and other marine animals Johnson, and a group of tourists he was with, came across a small pod of dolphins, playfully engaged with each other. "I met this curious and playful dolphin. I had just turned on my camera to film an adolescent male playing with the bag," Johnson told Ynet. "I followed as he would catch the bag with his rostrum or one of his fins and swim around as if it were jewelry. Every so often it would slip off, or he would let it go, and he would immediately turn around to pick it up again." But the game soon took a dangerous tern: "He came up for air and when he came back down his rostrum went into the handle of the bag," Johnson said. "I thought he was playing at first until he started spinning frantically to get it off. I felt hopeless and didn't know what to do so we kept looking for him or the bag as we continued our swim. I felt helpless not knowing what to do. I decided to follow him", he said, adding he eventually watched as the dolphin swam away, still struggling with the bag. Spinner dolphins in Hawaii (Photo: Paulphin Photography) Johnson described how he and the group he was with feared for the dolphin's fate – a concern the luckily was soon replaced with relief. "After 15 minutes I found the bag floating in the water," he reveals. Utah-born Johnson (30) decided to devote his life to dolphins after watching the "The Cove," a 2009 documentary the focused on the dolphin hunting industry in Japan and around the world. "I've always had a deep love for animals and nature. I knew I needed to protect these amazing creatures any way I could," he explains. Johnson then joined the Wild Dolphin Foundation in Hawaii, where he serves as a tour guide for "Wild Side Specialty Tours," which he explained is the "money making aspect" of the organization. Spinner dolphins, he added, often play with object underwater objects, including plastic bags, which can be dangerous to marine life. "We would use this as great opportunity to teach our customers to say no to plastic bags at the grocery store," he said. Johnson hopes that the recently released YouTube video will increase public awareness of marine pollution: "Our actions have unimaginable consequences. It is short and simple message for a very urgent and global problem. "Most people don't worry about what they cannot see. I hope this video helps to show people that our actions DO have consequences and while this story has a happy ending, countless others aren't quite as lucky." Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter