Sadly, our Go PRO divers find yet another ‘ghost net’ covering an area of fragile coral reef in the protected Tunku Abdul Rahman marine park, and as usual our ambassadors of ocean protection descended upon it to remove the destructive marine debris!

Platinum PADI Course Director Richard Swann briefs the team of certified divers on safety procedures for net removals, and the audience can easily witness his passion and vast experience in conservation projects such as this.

In the past decade, our dive operations have assisted, organized and executed more than 100 removals of illegally discarded fishing nets in the parameters of the marine park. The efficiency of our island staff team of professional divers to complete such an extensively challenging dive is due to the years of experience volunteering in previous net removal dives.

Other selfless volunteers included our Go PRO interns, both local and international candidates who worked together in dive teams, as well as one of our international clients experiencing our daily dive packages to explore the reefs of Kota Kinabalu. During his program, his diving abilities improved substantially and our team invited him along for the very special opportunity to contribute to the preservation of our marine environment!

One conservation project leads to another! After surfacing with the length of the ‘ghost net’, the divers separated the broken coral fragments from the fishing lines to be re-planted into the artificial reef in front of our premier PADI 5 Star IDC Dive Centre on Gaya Island. The corals will flourish over time being in such close proximity to the existing natural reef, and which, particularly when our professional team of PADI Instructors and their student divers dive the area in future, will inspire all to continue our ocean conservation!