Making PADI® Women's Dive Day and Every Day Count for Ocean Protection
Share
Project AWARE News
By Project AWARE®
This PADI® Women's Dive Day, July 18, we are celebrating women who are leading community actions, fins on and fins off, for a clean and healthy ocean.
On World Environment Day, inspired by the video The Ugly Journey of our Trash, a team of female divers from many countries in the world launched a video on social media, where they passed plastic items we use in our daily life to one another to show the amount of plastic packaging that ends up in the landfills and eventually in our ocean to educate on the danger of plastic in our oceans.
We have talked to some of the divers featured in this video and asked how they advocate for the ocean as female role-models in their local communities.
1. How did you come up with the video idea and why was it important to you to get involved?
I was planning for a Dive Against Debris® and beach clean-up for World Environment Day 2020, and then COVID-19 hit, forcing us to stay home and giving the oceans a chance to heal naturally. My wish is for this to continue. Since plastic pollution is a global issue and protecting the oceans starts from our home, I wanted to show how we can play our part through simple recycling, so I thought that having the message delivered by female scuba divers from around the world would make a strong statement. I started reaching out, we brainstormed together, and that's how this amazing collaboration started.
- Mojan Movahedi - Shark Diving School - Iran
2. What does ocean conservation mean to you?
Ocean conservation for me is a change in our behavior, since it begins in our daily lives. We need to think about conserving the oceans when we go to the supermarket, when we choose a product, when we choose a company to work with. For me, ocean conservation is a new lifestyle, where we prioritize the preservation of our planet and make choices based on that.
- Fernanda Paiva - Let's Dive - Brazil
3. What are the actions you take personally or in your dive centre to be a torchbearer for ocean protection?
Photo by Alex Kydd
Being a torch bearer can be done in so many ways, I think that leading by example and always trying to improve are two important things. Practically, I try to reduce my general consumption, avoid eating fish and ocean products, lower my plastic use and clean the ocean/beach every time I have the chance.
- Sarah Gauthier, aka Scuba Sarah - Germany
4. How do you find being a woman in the ocean conservation world/diving industry?
As a PADI Course Director and Marine Conservationist I am actively involved in both industries and understand they are still very male dominated. My experience however is one being surrounded by incredible female scientists, researchers, campaigners, educators, dive instructors, divers and managers and I am so proud to see the work these women are doing. It is up to us to continue to inspire and educate the next generation of women to follow careers in the marine environment and change this gender inequality for the future.
- Hayley-Jo Carr - The Perry Institute for Marine Science - The Bahamas
5. What is your message to inspire non-divers and the new generation to create long-lasting change for the health of our ocean?
It would have to be my favorite quote: “Even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, it touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea. - Sylvia Earle
A big thank you to all the women contributing to ocean conservation and for being role-models to inspire the next generation of female ocean adventurers and heroes.
{"preview_thumbnail":"/sites/www.diveagainstdebris.org/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/ZhHlTRyBDHQ.jpg","video_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhHlTRyBDHQ","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":0},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive)."]}
From the My Ocean Community
My Ocean is a growing community of conservation leaders. Together, our actions add up to global impact for our ocean planet.
I was planning for a Dive Against Debris® and beach clean-up for World Environment Day 2020, and then COVID-19 hit, forcing us to stay home and giving the oceans a chance to heal naturally. My wish is for this to continue. Since plastic pollution is a global issue and protecting the oceans starts from our home, I wanted to show how we can play our part through simple recycling, so I thought that having the message delivered by female scuba divers from around the world would make a strong statement. I started reaching out, we brainstormed together, and that's how this amazing collaboration started.
Ocean conservation for me is a change in our behavior, since it begins in our daily lives. We need to think about conserving the oceans when we go to the supermarket, when we choose a product, when we choose a company to work with. For me, ocean conservation is a new lifestyle, where we prioritize the preservation of our planet and make choices based on that.
As a PADI Course Director and Marine Conservationist I am actively involved in both industries and understand they are still very male dominated. My experience however is one being surrounded by incredible female scientists, researchers, campaigners, educators, dive instructors, divers and managers and I am so proud to see the work these women are doing. It is up to us to continue to inspire and educate the next generation of women to follow careers in the marine environment and change this gender inequality for the future.
It would have to be my favorite quote: “Even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, it touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea. - Sylvia Earle
