On June 12th, PADI Platinum Course Director Camille Lemmens ran for ocean conservation in the Laguna Phuket International Half Marathon raising more than $1770 for Project AWARE.

Now, with the official launch of our movement for ocean protection, we’re using the web to connect with divers in some of the most remote corners of the world. But it's the offline action that individual divers, like you, take when you Dive Against Debris that makes a big difference to our ocean's ecosystems.

When PADI Course Directors, Darren McNamara and Katy Bloor, returned from a trip to Malaysia where they were astonished by the number of plastic bags floating around, they decided to raise awareness of the threats that plastic bags pose to marine wildlife. Back in the UK, they set up a challenge for members of their dive school Sub-Mission and asked them to go “Plastic Bag Free” for a week.

Shark populations over the last 50 years have decreased dramatically. From habitat degradation to overfishing and finning, human activities have affected their populations and made certain species all but disappear.

In a sign that the global movement to protect sharks is picking up steam, Honduras is declaring its waters to be a permanent sanctuary for the fish.
President Porfirio Lobo Sosa will sign the sanctuary bill into law on Friday on a visit to the island of Roatan, the country's top diving and snorkeling destination, his office said on Thursday. The move makes permanent a moratorium on commercial fishing for sharks that Honduras announced last year in a joint declaration with the Micronesian island of Palau.

Braving the chilly conditions of Shelley Beach, New South Wales, Australia, 14 Project AWARE and PADI Asia Pacific staff completed a Dive Against Debris underwater survey. 

The oceans are in a worse state than previously suspected, according to an expert panel of scientists.
In a new report, they warn that ocean life is "at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history".

Washington DC, June 8, 2011 - Fishing for Energy, the unique partnership providing fishermen with a cost-free solution for recycling and recovering energy from old fishing gear, is commemorating World Oceans Day this year with the achievement of a significant milestone - collecting one million pounds of old fishing gear and marine debris since the program's inception in 2008.

It was a global, round-the-clock celebration on 8th June, World Oceans Day, when Project AWARE launched a stronger action plan for the ocean. 

Balloon, plastic bags, nylon rope and even rubber thongs are providing a deadly diet for Australia's critically endangered sea turtle population, a new study shows.
On the eve of World Ocean Day, research by the Earthwatch program Turtles in Trouble has shown that 36 per cent of Australian sea turtles are affected by marine litter, with some 18,000 pieces of plastic litter floating on every square kilometer of the world's oceans.