It was very special for us to conduct our first 'Dive Against Debris' on our newly adopted dive site of the USAT Liberty Shipwreck...and on June 8th 2017, no less - World Oceans Day!

Those selfless and enthusiastic volunteers involved must be mentioned!

• David 'Max' Dumont & Liz Street (Bali Dream Divers Tulamben Managers & PADI Instructors);
• Visiting Melbourne-based dive professionals Ollie Payne (PADI Master Instructor) & Christie Payne (PADI Instructor);
• Sisters Liza (PADI Rescue Diver) & Tina Wilm (PADI Divemaster) from Germany;
• Kadek 'Dex' Suke, Made, 'Little' Made & Ketut (local professional divers from both Bali Dream Divers Tulamben and Aqua Dive Paradise operations)

Numerous marine debris was collected from around the shipwreck, rather than within the wreck itself. Much of it found in the shallow area where the bottom composition is sand, rocks and gravel. During that dive, there was moderate surge and surf caused by an overnight torrential rainstorm, but the visibility in deeper depths was great!

Teams were created during the dive briefing. Max briefed a team of 4, whose minimal air consumption allowed them to safely dive at 20-30 metres (not TO their no decompression limit!), but meant their dive would be roughly the same dive time as the others who would dive at shallower depths. From 1 metre to 20 metres, these depths had 3 buddy teams' (6 divers) to focus on. Planning the dive in this way, (most divers searching for marine debris at shallower depths) was a calculated one - with our local knowledge of water current in the area we can speculate debris is likely to be washed up onto shore eventually. 

We've already seen the positive effect that one single dive has had on those divers who took part - lots of awareness! We're already planning on our next 'Dive Against Debris' on July 1st AND we at Bali Dream Divers' will be working together a lot more closely with Aqua Dive Paradise! What we cherish as much as contributing to the health of our marine environment, is the new bonds of friendship with others' in the community, for which we're so grateful for! The only negative? Why we didn't start this sooner!?