Every Dive a Survey Dive
The Issue
It’s no secret that marine debris is a primary threat facing today's ocean, choking, suffocating, entangling and killing precious marine life and destroying ocean habitats.
Although it’s believed that over 70% of marine debris that enters the ocean ends up on the seafloor, little quantitative information is available regarding the types and quantities of this rubbish. Dive Against Debris®, Project AWARE's flagship citizen science program, aims to fill this gap – providing quantitative data, and an accurate perspective about underwater marine debris, that policy-makers simply cannot ignore.
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What We're Doing
Working towards long-term, meaningful solutions to the global marine debris crisis at local, national and international levels has been a priority for Project AWARE since its inception in the early 90’s. But in 2018, our work and fight against marine debris hit a significant milestone - one million pieces of debris removed from the ocean and recorded to our global Dive Against Debris® dataset of underwater debris.
We are taking a stronger stand against debris in the ocean to increase participation in Dive Against Debris and, as a result, reach our next million pieces of debris reported by the end of 2020.
We need all divers to put their scuba skills to good use and make #EveryDiveaSurveyDive. Only divers have the skills required to collect this data which is essential if we are going to find long-term solutions to the marine debris crisis.
So far, we have:
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Empowered 1,607 Dive Against Debris Instructors who educated over 2,449 students on the threats of marine debris and how to take action to fight it.
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Created Adopt a Dive Site™ to encourage monthly Dive Against Debris data reporting of dive sites, including debris free sites.
AWARE Impact:
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More than 86,000 community members in over 120 countries have removed over 1.6 million debris items from the ocean - That’s over #OneMillionLess pieces of debris no longer wreaking havoc on marine life and fragile underwater habitats!
How You Can Help
Collectively our actions add up to big results and take us one step closer to a return to a clean and healthy ocean.
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Make #EveryDiveaSurveyDive in 2020 to play a big part of the solution.
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Adopt a Dive Site™ to take your Dive Against Debris actions to the next level.
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Take or teach the Dive Against Debris specialty to mobilize your community into action and empower a growing movement of debris activists across the globe.
Every piece of information, every Dive Against Debris survey submitted is a key part of solving the marine debris jigsaw puzzle. Be part of the solution - Make your dives count towards #NextMillion2020!
Even if you don’t see debris on a dive (lucky you) report it through the Dive Against Debris App or online reporting form. Finding no debris on a dive is important data to submit as it can help identify when new problems arise. Simply select the “Our Survey Site Was Free of Debris” option when you submit your data. Debris-free sites are also visualised on the Dive Against Debris Map.
