Do you care about the ocean but you don’t dive? Well you can still help clean our oceans even without going deep.

During the first week of April we went on the snorkeling tour with Aqua Andy.  We had a group of 12 people, only 4 of whom have ever been diving, and we managed to collect a lot of marine debris from an area we have been planning to clean for a while.  Our initial intention had been to organise a clean-up dive, but as the most concentrated area of plastic was at a depth of between 1 and 2 metres we thought we would practice our free diving skills, and get some non-divers to think about the state of the ocean as well.

There was an area heavily piled up with plastic bottles, which had all washed up in one corner of Lighthouse Bay, most likely from the bigger snorkeling tours that never have divers with them.  Most of the people on any of these snorkeling tours don’t dive and often it’s the first time many of them have seen coral reefs, so they are unaware of the delicate balance to keep this eco-system healthy.  This is why we put a big eco message in with our boat briefings.

Once at the site it took us no more than 5 minutes to fill a dive bag with plastic bottles. There was still more work to be done but we didn’t realize how deep the pile of bottles went, so we will be returning next week with more bags to clear it all.

This, along with our beach clean ups, just goes to show that you don’t have to be a diver to help care for our oceans that are in a delicate balance. That being said everyone should learn to dive!  So check out our website and Facebook page to read more about learning to dive, or about any of our eco work.

A big thank you to everyone who helped out and hope see you all again soon.