In this week’s Community Spotlight, we chat with Cody McDonald, owner of Blue Corner Dive in Indonesia. Together with co-founder, Andrew Taylor, their passionate team encourages ocean action on all fronts.

Tell us about your passion for ocean conservation.

Here at Blue Corner Dive, we strive to be ambassadors of the ocean. We are scuba divers who teach, guide and love to explore the dive sites.  When our guides and instructors are not with guests they head out to the ocean for a dive to explore unchartered territories. We love the ocean and we do not care for “dry days”!!!! 

Why and when did you get involved with Project AWARE?

We got involved with Project AWARE when we became a 100% AWARE dive center four years ago. Subsequently, we have increased our conservation actions and have added additional learning opportunities for all our divers through specialty's like Dive Against Debris.  We hope to add more in the coming months and years.

What are some issues that are affecting your local dive site or favorite underwater areas?

Much like many other diving locations, we experience similar problems. Our main sources of pollution are plastic single use bags, foil lined sachets and nylon rope.  Our dive resort is located in an area where seaweed farms have been abandoned and nylon rope now washes out and away.  We do see less and less nylon rope as the month's progress.

Tell us about your work!

We've adopted two dive sites and conduct monthly Dive Against Debris actions at those locations. We also have a commitment to the Marine Protected Area of Nusa Penida and all of our diving guests and students are reminded of the codes of conduct for responsible interaction with manta rays, oceanic sunfish, and the coral reef. Andrew was also involved in helping Project AWARE develop the Shark and Ray Tourism: A Guide to Best Practice.

Blue Corner Dive is also a supporter of MMF (Marine Megafauna Foundation).  We host Bi-Annual fundraising events and encourage all our guests and professional level students to attend the weekly presentations provided by MMF Volunteers.  As part of the commitment to MMF we invite MMF volunteers onto our boats for their Manta research.  The volunteers provide our guests with information on identifying manta rays and reminders on the interaction with mantas.

We also offer free water refills and have removed plastic drinking straws and bottles from our resort.  Blue Corner Dive professional programs have adopted two dives sites through the Adopt A Dive Site initiative.  We use one site, Buyuk, for our Instructor Development program. As part of our course, we require all Instructor Development candidates to Dive Against Debris. The second site is Karang Sari and is cleaned monthly by our Divemaster candidates. New for 2017 we are starting a Finathon campaign for monthly dive site clean ups offered to our divers and guests for just a minimum donation to Project AWARE. I also love to teach the Dive Against Debris and AWARE Shark Conservation Instructor Specialty as often as possible!

What has been the highlight of your Project AWARE experience?

Working with our professional level students to develop their understanding of pollution and passion for the ocean. We love to focus some of that fun and enthusiasm into ocean conservation and action. The awakening and development in these individuals, that they then go on to teach and instill in others, is priceless.

What is the most important thing you tell others about Project AWARE?

It is a simple message really………GET INVOLVED!