Now, more than ever, it seems that our eyes have been opened to the plight of the oceans. The human race has continued to use the planet’s resources and carry on their way of life without consideration to what they are doing to the planet. Now, it seems, the planet is fighting back.

During the last month or so of the pandemic it has been humbling to see how much the planet recovers when we give it time to heal. There have been reports that the largest hole in the ozone has begun to close, wildlife has been returning to places that it had left a long time ago, air pollution has reduced, migrations are bigger and better than ever, as well as many other examples.

Before you jump up and start to shout at us… We’re not here to deliberate politics or discuss conspiracy theories about whether these things “have or haven’t” really happened, but we would like to make you think about our precious resources and consider that we can all do more to support our planet.

If we could all make small changes then our impact on the planet and its’ resources would be reduced drastically. After all, it’s simple math that we’ll make a bigger impact if millions of people make small changes, than if only a few people make big changes. It is possible for us all to do our part…

As a responsible dive center and generally as people that care about the planet (in particular a healthy ocean) we at XTC try our best to be as sustainable as possible and minimize our impact on the environment. No, we’re not perfect, but we try… and we are open to any ideas that can make us better as well.

Here are just some of the things that we are doing to try and minimize our impact and protect our precious marine environment…

• Assisting the local marine parks and authorities where allowable
• Ensuring that all of our students, divers and instructors are following the 10 recommendations for divers and are diving not only in a safe, but also a sustainable way
• Regularly scheduling dives to remove marine debris from our dive sites and reporting the data in order to help with national and international policy changes
• Performing weekly beach cleans
• Conducting reef check dives to provide vital data on the health of the reef in our area
• Offering an additional “EcoPro” workshop with all of our Professional dive courses as well as other specific workshops to promote sustainability
• Offering additional Project AWARE specialties to all Instructor candidates
• Becoming a 100% AWARE dive center
• Becoming a PADI “green” dive center
• Following Green Fins advice and recommendations
• Minimizing our single-use plastics consumption
• Recycling what we can
• Providing free drinking water refills
• Using recycled water through some of the resort facilities
• Supporting and becoming a partner of Project AWARE

XTC Dive Center is proud to be a Project AWARE partner and 100% AWARE dive center!

Project AWARE is a not-for-profit ocean conservation charity based in the USA and UK. They take action to create both local and global change for the ocean and the communities that depend on it.

Part of being a 100% AWARE partner means that we make a donation to Project AWARE on behalf of all of our students, whenever we certify them for any PADI course. Project AWARE uses these donations to fund ocean conservation projects all around the World. To show their appreciation Project AWARE awards each participating student diver with a special edition AWARE diver certification card.

Not only do we contribute to Project AWARE’s global movement financially, but we also support them in other ways as well…

• We offer the full range of Project AWARE Student Specialty and Specialty Instructor courses. This means that our future Dive Pros can teach their students how to be environmentally responsible as well.
• All of our guides and divers follow the 10 Tips for Divers
• We dive against debris and report our data to Project AWARE
• We are adopting a dive site – this means that we are going to make a commitment to perform regular dives against debris on this dive site and send the data for analysis
• We publicize our efforts and encourage others to join with our My Ocean profile. You can also follow us at: https://www.projectaware.org/diver/xtcdive

For more information about Project AWARE, visit https://www.projectaware.org/

For more information about Green Fins, visit https://www.greenfins.net/

To see what we’re up to you can follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/XTCdivecenter/

Or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xtcdivecenterxcalak/

Remember… all dive centers should want to do more to support a healthy ocean so, if you’re a diver, do your homework and make sure you support the ones that do try.