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.

The event which took place in May 2011 was a huge success. Participants were given a “bag for life” to use throughout the week to replace any plastic bags that they may have ordinarily used. At the end of the week, they were asked to come back to the dive centre to confess their plastic bag sins and for each sin committed they had to pay a small donation to Project AWARE. On this occasion, the team at Project AWARE was very pleased that the event didn’t raise much funds.

Now Katy and Darren together with their tribe of passionate divers are getting ready for their next conservation challenge “Fin4Finning”: a 100 kilometers sponsored swim scheduled to take place on July, 09th 2011 aimed at raising awareness of the plight of sharks.

Katy has just returned from Dominican Republic where she successfully completed her PADI Course Director Training Course (Congratulations Katy and all CDTC candidates!) so I'm sure she will be in top form to swim and motivate her team to fin for shark conservation on Saturday 9th July. So join the challenge and get your fins ready to Fin4Finning with Sub-Mission!