In celebration of the ocean, Project AWARE organized an AWARE Week taking place globally from 15th – 23rd September 2018. Aimed at empowering more divers to look after the underwater world, a full week of conservation activities and actions will take place.
As a PADI 5* IDC Dive Resort, we organized different activities throughout the week and closed the week with the Dive Against the Debris by the Divemaster candidates.
Read their personal story about participating in the AWARE Dive Against Debris.
Jazz:
This was my first Project Aware dive and it was so much fun! Even though it was sad to know that there is so much debris and waste in the ocean, it was great to be a part of a community of divers who want to help and have a shared passion. I was surprised by how hard it was to identify some of the debris that we collected, and also how difficult some of it was to find whilst diving as it was partially buried or hidden by the underwater landscape. I’m excited to take part in more clean up dives in the future to help keep our oceans clean for all to enjoy.
Tamar:
On Sunday the 23th of September, I went diving with Kim and all the DMC’s of Scuba Center Asia. The purpose of this dive was to clean up all types of rubbish in a particular dive site, the Pontoon in Nusa Lembongan. This dive was initiated by Kim as this week Project Aware has organised a week about awareness. We buddied up and divided into two search groups, armed with special underwater rubbish bags. Even though the dive site looked quite clean at first sight, we still managed to collect around 5kg of rubbish! We found all sorts of plastic materials, pipes, metal, glass, paper, rope, but even t shirts and parts of a toilet bowl! When we came up with our big bags filled with rubbish I felt like we had been able to make a small contribution to cleaning up the ocean. Afterwards we all created a ‘my ocean’ account that allows us to keep track of the rubbish we will find in the water from now on. This activity has made me more aware of the rubbish issue in our ocean and whenever there will be another clean up dive, I will be more than happy to join!
Joe:
Today we had a fantastic Dive Against Debris with all the Divemaster candidates at Scuba Center Asia. It was a brilliant team building exercise and highlighted the problems that our oceans are facing. We collected a broad variety of waste which, although relatively small, felt like a real accomplishment. The experience has definitely opened my eyes to the scale of the problem and although I always pick up trash if I see it on a dive, I think it will push me to actively seek it from now on. To be honest, I can’t wait to do it again. Special mention to Tamara for being on mesh bag duty, I think we made a great team!!
Anouk:
First Project AWARE Cleanup dive ever! We were heading to Lembongan bay to clean our asses off. With 21 degrees it was a chilly dive, but when you work hard, it is so rewarding. What we found? Toilet pots, steel pipes and big wooden beams. Unfortunately, we couldn’t bring up everything because of the weight. For the small debris we brought our mesh bags. We found a lot of ribbons and plastic, but also a whiteboard and a heavy metal screw (1 kg). It’s a sad thing that it has to be done, but a good thing that we didn’t find that much rubbish! Looking forward to the next DIVE AGAINST DEBRIS!
Arte:
We did an AWARE Cleanup dive ‘Dive against Debris’ with all Divemaster candidates of Scuba Center Asia. After singing all together during our water treading test (which we all passed with the highest score), we went down in teams for some serious cleanup. I brought my camera and mesh bag and was happy about the small amount of waste. I needed to go to the toilet and luckily, we found one underwater. Unfortunately, it was broken, so I couldn’t use it. We took the broken pieces with us. A fish made his house out of it, so we left the biggest part for him to use. Luckily, we were able to help the ocean a little bit, but we can’t do this alone, so we need your help! DON’T LET THE OCEAN GO TO WASTE!
