Of the 57 participants that raised funds for the Project AWARE Finathon, some swam with fins, mask and snorkel, and some without. 

One swimmer signed up after seeing our youtube movie post about shark finning - he had no idea of the danger sharks face!

The swim course was in front of a popular beach (Mambo Beach) so a lot of passers-by got curious and asked us what was going on, which makes us feel that we reached quite a few people with information about shark finning. A lot of people still don't realize that there are really not that many sharks left!

Apart from our colleagues from the dive shop and our friends from the Seaquarium, a group of swimmers from the local Triathlon club also participated and are already asking if we'll host another FINathon or swim for a good cause next year! Some of the tourists that were visiting the island also joined in the fun and swam for sharks! Everybody was very happy and had a good time.

Coca Cola sponsored us with drinks and the Hemingway Beach Bar and Restaurant brought us sandwiches to keep everyone going. The triathlon club not only swam their hearts out but were also nice enough to let us use their race buoys to mark the course.

It's really nice to see people so willing to help for such a good cause!

In total we swam 188 Laps, which equals to 151,2 KM.

Some cool facts:

·         - Menno ter Bals swam the most laps without fins ( 13 laps)

·         - Manuel Jove Swam the most laps with fins (13 laps)

·        -  Our youngest swimmer was Vincent Mosterd (8 years old, he swam 2 laps!)

·         - And we believe the fastest lap was done in 10.25 by Caetano Kluyver.

Our goal was to swim the length of the island in kilometres, which would have been 65km! You see we more than reached that goal.

About 20 of our participants had already  signed up in advance, the remaining 37 came along with their friends or signed up on the beach!