Very few children on the island of Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, know how to swim despite growing up on the tiny island paradise. This World Ocean Day, Trawangan Dive and the Gili Island Divers Association will give local children the skills they need to swim, float and snorkel as well as protect the ocean for future generations.  Collectively about 300 local children will cover 7kms which is also the distance from Gili Trawangan to Lombok.

Master Divers Koh Tao, Thailand have always been FINatical about sharks. They created and produced a super cool Shark Life video for the Big Shark Shout Out in 2012. And  PADI Dive Master Gene Giraudeau successfully swam 23 km around the island of Koh Tao with Master Divers as her support crew in December last year. Way to go!

A FINtastic thank you to Langley Divers, Canada for completing their second indoor pool Finathon™.
This April a team of 12 raised $1,200 swimming to end finning. Les Newman, PADI Course Director at Langley Diving was introduced to the Finathon idea in 2011.

A love of eating pies and protecting sharks has inspired one scuba diver to make a pledge he may regret! If his fundraising target is met he’ll swim 1,500 metres. But for every $10 over the target PADI Master Instructor, Andrew Barrett will swim an extra 100 metres.  This puts Andrew’s Finathon™ challenge firmly in the hands of his friends. The more dollars people donate the more he’ll have to swim so please give generously to protect sharks.

‘Did you know that Grey Nurse shark pups eat each other in the mother’s womb and only the strongest survive?’ This is one of many facts about sharks discovered by divers on the Dive World, Brisbane Specialty course this weekend.

The good news is you don’t have to be an event organiser extraordinaire to get involved in the Finathon™ 2013. In fact you don’t actually have to swim at all.
Simply create your very own personal Finathon™ fundraising page, write a few words from the heart about why you love sharks, why sharks are totally awesome and why you think they deserve protecting. Make it personal and ask your friends to support the cause!

You can make a difference for the ocean by donating your underwater photos to ZenWave Gallery. Launched last year, the ZenWave goal is to drive social and community change through the sale of amazing photos.  All proceeds raised through the sale of photos support good causes including ocean conservation and Project AWARE.
“I'm Buddhist, a keen amateur photographer and I love to travel.  Through ZenWave I've decided to combine these passions to try and give something back to the amazing places that have given me so much inspiration,” said founder Mark Turner. 

In a double bid to clean the waters of Patong and raise awareness for shark protection Scuba Cat Diving is hosting a Dive Against Debris and a Get Swimming to End Shark Finning(Finathon) this Saturday, February 16th 2013 at Paradise Reef, Patong.
The event named   “We Belong To The Sea” spotlights scuba divers unique ability to tackle global marine debris and shark finning issues.

100% AWARE Partner Scuba Symphony Malaysia  is offering a fantastic prize with its latest photo contest.   In the lead up to CITES in March the theme for photo submissions is Rays (Mantas/Stingrays/Devil-rays, no Sun Rays).  Divers can win a 5 day and 4 night Manado full board/twin-share diving package ex Manado airport, sponsored by La Rascasse Divers.

Have you made a New Year Resolution for 2013? Why not keep it simple and aim to reduce, recycle and Dive Against Debris? For the the GoPro Family a resolution to go green developed into a real fixation. "This eco-friendly mission soon became an obsession and Angel was collecting cans and bottles from everywhere and anywhere to recycle," said Jo Armitage, Master Instructor.