A very enthusiastic group of 27 Tourism Management students from Sandakan Polytechnic were with us this week.

Visiting Kota Kinabalu, which is a 7 hour bus ride from Sandakan, the group was on a fact finding mission to learn what tourism attractions the city has to offer through PADI Discover Scuba Diving programs.

Downbelow had the honour of introducing them to underwater tourism of Kota Kinabalu, which was extra special, as none of them had ever dived before.

Shaping the impressionable minds of those new to the underwater world, we also presented the AWARE Coral Reef Conservation course to them.

The importance of coral reefs were explained, not just in the context of its importance to the ocean as a whole, but also for frame of reference, which is tourism.

They were further interested to learn about sharks, especial because Sabah's Tourism Minister recently announced that shark finning will be banned in Sabah.

The students showed their support for the continuing plight of sharks by signing Project AWARE's Give Sharks a Chance petition.

It was a great day of fun, and we hope to have left a lasting impression upon these future leader's of Sabah's Tourism industry about how important the ocean, reefs and sharks are.