To coincide with the land activities for Clean Up The World Day, Big Blue held a Dive Against Debris on Saturday afternoon. The call for volunteer divers was obviously well heard as we had 22 volunteer divers turn up to give their time to collect marine debris. Every single set of hire gear in the shop was used! Ni-Vanuatu divers, local expat residents and aid workers of all ages and multiple nationalities got together to help reduce the pollution in our oceans which is detrimental to the marine life and detracts from the beauty of our environment. Thank you very much to Mark Raffles, Bernard Parker, John Malcolm, Don Ostapovitch, Terry Gardner, Nancy Miyake, Ivan Oswold, Tony Batten, Elizabeth Russell, Jonathan Bardon, Guillaume Poidevin, Hendry Taiford, Dr Chris Taridivas, Roger Roy, Shaun Hibgame, Toby Sulis, Joel Klaus, Jason Ritenour, Gaea Dill-D’Asioli, Alex Brossman, Betsy Jenkins and Ula Majewski.

The Big Blue staff put in a great effort too, with Wils in the water, and the rest on boat or land support. Every one was carrying heavy wet sacks of rubbish or sorting it into piles. Ashley, a young lad who happened to be on the seafront join in and helped us bring up the sacks of rubbish.

We also collected 4 tires, one weighting 70 kg, plastic bags, and plastic bottles amongst other things. One of the unusual items was a bottle of perfume, which was still working and smelt a lot better than most of the other items!! We also found a credit card, a padlock and an umbrella.

Big Blue will hold regular Dives Against Debris, our next one is scheduled for the end of November.