Big Blue teamed up with the Vanautu Government's Department of Environmental Protection and Conservation and the Vanautu Envrionmental Science Society (VESS) for National Environment Week and held a Dive Against Debis and an underwater photo competition last weekend. The dive against debris was a separate dive from the project we have been running  with our professioonal divers to remove the debris from the seafront which resulted from cyclone Pam. This dive was open for any diver to join in. 

Our 10 divers picked up 351kg of debris, including 89 glass bottles and 75 drinks cans. I guess that's not unexpected when diving out the front of a pub. But the champagne bucket, the eftpos machine and cash register were a suprise. We suspect they might have been washed off shore during cyclone Pam 3 months ago. We certainly did bring up some cyclone debris - 43 pieces of fiberglass, 2 metal boat railings, a fiberglass repair kit and a radio antenae. All results of boats being wrecked during the cyclone. But there was still a lot of 'normal' rubbish as well - food wrappers, plastic bage etc. VESS held a beach clean up in the same area and picked up a lot of plastics as well. 

The underwater photo competition was designed to highlight the variety and the beauty of the maine life just off the edge of our capital city. All the photos were taken this week along the seawall from just in front of the Big Blue shop and the seafront park. Living there the fish and critters are exposed to whatever us humans put down the storm drains, including all the litter dropped on the streets of Port Vila. We wanted to show people living 'topiside' what amazing things live under the water right next door in the hope that they might think about their behavious and how it is affecting those creatures that live in the sea.