Wednesday 13-07-2011

Today was a special day! Ban's Diving Resort organized a big Eco Evening with multiple Eco presentations!

At 18:30 Finley had to meet in the IDC classroom where a big crowd was gathering to see Finley and listen to the eco presentations. Marine Biologist Laura Riding hosted the night and started with an introduction followed by Project Aware Coral Reef conservation Specialty presentation. It was very impressive to listen to Laura Riding who had so much knowledge about the theory. Laura also did an amazing job intergrading the new project aware and the local Save Koh Tao organization into the specialty.

After the Specialty Laura Riding continued with a presentation about the New project Aware. Concentrating on the 2 main programs: Marine Debris and Saving the Sharks. Marcel van den Berg talked about the new social network part of the new Project Aware Website and Finn and Finley. During this presentation Finley had chance to stand in front of the class room and explain how Finley is a fantastic tool to make people aware of the present treat to sharks all around the world! Finley did great and convinced everyone to sign the Shark Petition and creating their own My Ocean Page! It was a very successful night for Finley and Project Aware and one to be repeated on a regular basis in the future!

Special thanks to Laura Riding # 495929 !

Thursday 14-07-2011

Today Finley met Course Director Nathalie Hunt, who took Finley under her wing for the day. In the morning Finley visited the last day of the PADI IE on Koh Tao and was reunited with PADI Examiner: Young Hee Harris, who Finley already met on the PADICDTC last month in the Dominican Republic. The last day of the IE was the confined session and all IE candidates performed really well with high scores! What can you expect with Finley cheering them on! :)

The closing ceremony was fantastic and was held in Darawan Restaurant!

Congratulations to the new PADIOWSI-Instructors: Emily Hong, Laura Osborne, RenskeKievit, Guy Hankin and Johan Bjurback!!!

In the afternoon Finley went to Sunshine Divers. Sunshine Divers is a daughter company of Ban's Diving Resort and is a Dive school located in Chalok Bay on the south end of Koh Tao. Finley had a warm welcome and met many new Shark enthusiasts.

Finley joined in on an EFR and PADI Rescue Course. Finley recently got certified as an EFR Instructor so she could help on the EFR part before the Rescue Course started. It was so much fun and Finley met many new people of Koh Tao! Thanks Nathalie Hunt for the great day today!!!

Finley was supposed to leave today, but a rumor came in of a Movie Star visiting Koh Tao, so Finley is waiting 2 more day's for a chance to speak with her about the protection of the Sharks, then Finley’s last Blog on Koh Tao will be at the post office :)

Next stop for Finley:

Kathleen Russell
Al Mahara Diving Center,  
Abu Dhabi
United Arab Emirates