18th – 26th September 2021 saw divers from all walks of life come together to celebrate the fourth annual AWARE Week, a week-long event dedicated to local action for global conservation impact.
“AWARE Week 2021 brings together eco-conscious divers and ocean enthusiasts to advance PADI’s conservation blueprint, charting a decade of ocean action to achieve a balance between humanity and ocean,” says Kristin Valette Wirth, Chief Brand and Membership Officer for PADI Worldwide. “By uniting as a community of PADI Torchbearers™ who explore and protect the ocean, we work as a global force for good, taking meaningful action for the ocean to drive lasting change.”
Throughout the week, PADI Dive Centers, Resorts and Professionals from over 20 different countries across six continents hosted a diversity of events to engage divers and non-divers alike with marine conservation. These inspiring events advance the PADI community’s 10-year conservation goals focused on marine debris, coral restoration, marine protected areas, vulnerable species protection, climate change and the need to come together as a global tribe to save our ocean.
AWARE Week 2021 filled us with hope, as it proved again that we have what it takes to work together to rise up and save the ocean.
Here’s a recap of what happened:
PADI Dive Centers and Resorts hosted a variety of virtual events exploring a wide range of issues tied to PADI’s Blueprint for Ocean Action. These included but were not limited to “Mauritius & the SDGs” (hosted by Crystal Divers Mauritius), “Introduction to Reef Formation and Ecology” (hosted by Utila Dive Center), AWARE Week 7 Day Torchbearer Challenge (hosted by Fifth Point Diving Centre) and “Marine Megafauna: Manta & Mola” (hosted by Aquamarine – Bali).
PADI AWARE Foundation also hosted a handful of Facebook Lives, kicked off by Danna Moore, PADI AWARE Foundation’s Director. On Wednesday we heard from Lauren Wiskerson, CRFE and Global Development Manager about your inspirational fundraisers, why individual donors are critical to the foundation’s work and what happens to your donations. On Thursday, Ian Campbell, Associate Director of Policy and Campaigns then explained the importance of data in marine conservation, how diver data is currently being used to create better waste management policy and plans for future citizen science opportunities looking at shark & ray, blue carbon and coral conservation.
PADI President and CEO Dr. Drew Richardson sat down with Dr. Deborah Brosnan to discuss how the dive and science communities are playing a key role in restoring the health of our oceans, and the steps we as citizens can take today to protect our environment. Watch the full conversation “Mobilizing an Ocean Tribe” here.
By far the most popular issue tackled by PADI Divers this AWARE Week was marine debris. Dive Against Debris events were hosted across the planet, with divers from Russia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific & Caribbean Islands, North and South America collecting and submitting data to the world’s leading marine debris citizen science database.
Some of these initiatives included;
Beach Cities Scuba’s multi-day “beach hopping” Pacific Beach Campaign Dive Zone Whitianga’ Dive Against Debris road trip Tauch Activ‘s Dive Against Debris event (75kg of debris and around 80 glass bottles removed from the lake) Enfield Scuba’s “Wands for Wildlife” event (upcycling mascara wands to use as cleaners of animals caught in oil spills) Chelonia Dive Center’s Ghost Gear Cleanup and; Bocas Dive Center’s “Dive Debris for Dollar” incentive, which saw divers rewarded with one dollar per item of debris collected and reported to PADI AWARE Foundation.PADI Dive Centers and Resorts also chose to focus on marine species monitoring and education. To name a few, Liquid Dive Adventures hosted a Humpback Whale Conservation Specialty, Bucea Hoy hosted a Sea Lion Awareness Eco Experience, Utila Dive Center spent a night monitoring a nearby sea turtle nest, Blue Ventures hosted an eco diving experience with grey seals and 20,000 Leagues Scuba and Aquatics conducted a reef fish citizen science survey.
Fundraising also came high on the agenda, with a number of communities coming together to generate donations for PADI’s Blueprint for Ocean Action. Nautical Adventures raised over $400 with their community clean up social event, and Scuba Dream @ Eight Acre Lake hosted a “Swim for Sharks” with a BBQ, tombola, raffles and prizes.
Events were not limited to PADI Diver Centers and Resorts, with individual PADI professionals hosting their own official events for the first time in the history of AWARE Week. Ryan Koesuma in Bali hosts a Coral Reef Restoration experience, Edward Anger offers a Turtle Educated Diver Course and Chun Bee Gan in South Australia encourages divers and non-divers to come together to clean up the local mangrove habitat.
In fact, AWARE Week 2021 offered an array of conservation experiences suited to divers and non-divers alike – such as Ocean Lovers Taganga’s Beach & Streets Clean followed by a juggling workshop in partnership with a local children’s charity and Red Sea Tribe’s weekly beach clean – proving that you don’t need to be a diver to be a PADI Torchbearer.
Become a PADI Torchbearer today at padi.com/onebillion and grow the collective influence of our community to speak as one voice for the ocean. Together, our local action can create global conservation impact.
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