Big Blue held another dive against debris last Friday, which happened to be Unity day here in Vanuatu. The dive took place just off the beach at Ifira point outside the boat yard. 10 volunteer divers took part and we collected 380kg of rubbish from the sea. We found a lot of general household rubbish in the sea at Ifira point.  In one hour 10 people collected 103 plastic bags, 209 plastic food wrappers, 5 nappies and 80 pieces of plastic. We also found plates, cutlery, shoes, bits of cloth, ropes, a couple of mobile phones, an umbrella, a screwdriver, a scuba regulator, a large piece of fiberglass sheeting, 149 bottles, 166 aluminum cans and many other items.  

Our dive against debris team had representatives from 9 different countries, which seemed very apt for an activity taking place on Unity day.  The divers were Jerry and Audry (Vanuatu), Carla (Ireland), Shelly (Canada), Toby (Australia), John (New Zealand), Jonathan and Alex (France), Gaea and Jason (USA). The organisers  were Mike (New Zealand), Christina (UK) and Justin (South Africa). Nicki (USA) helped us on shore and we must also mention Luaki and Charlie (Vanuatu) who manned the boat and collected the sacks of rubbish from the divers and brought it to shore. All of the volunteer divers were presented with a Project Aware mask tamer and sticker to thank them for their efforts.  We also need to say a huge thank you to Justin from the boat yard who arranged the appropriate disposal of the rubbish we collected.

Big Blue will continue to organized dives against debris to clean up our ocean and help protect the marine life. Follow us of facebook to find out when we will hold our next one.