With PADI and its conservation charity the PADI AWARE Foundation hoping that their Dive Against Debris programme will be included in next year’s inter-governmental Global Plastics Treaty, the upcoming annual PADI AWARE Week has taken on special significance, they say.
The annual week PADI dedicates to removing litter from the ocean takes place on 14-22 September, and the training agency wants its members to organise events that could help to influence the treaty.
“PADI and the AWARE Foundation are the only organisations representing the global recreational dive community in the ongoing official negotiations leading up to the anticipated agreement of the Global Plastics Treaty in 2025,” says PADI AWARE director Danna Moore.
“With the Global Plastics Treaty currently in development and the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on the horizon for November, this year’s AWARE Week events provide an important opportunity to call for a strong treaty.”
The hope is that if Dive Against Debris, said to be the world’s largest citizen-science underwater marine-litter database, is adopted in the treaty it would become an approved methodology for governments to harness.
4 ways to help
PADI wants to reduce the production of unnecessary single-use plastics products, and slash the rate at which all plastics waste enters the ocean. It regards official recognition of what it says is the diving community’s critical role as a “unique and crucial opportunity for a worldwide co-ordinated initiative to significantly address the ongoing plastic-pollution crisis”.
Members can contribute in four ways in and around AWARE Week, says PADI. Options are to run the Dive Against Debris speciality course, survey dives or clean-up events, and/or encourage their diver communities to sign the petition calling for a strong Global Plastics Treaty, aiming to secure at least 10,000 new signatures.
“All PADI Assistant Instructors and higher are now automatically eligible to teach the Dive Against Debris speciality course, meaning more PADI professionals now have the power to teach more superheroes how to save the ocean,” says Moore.
“We also encourage PADI members to keep the momentum going both during and after AWARE Week and continue submitting Dive Against Debris data.”
Hosting a Dive Against Debris event or other conservation activity can involve inviting a community to take part in a beach or ocean clean-up while at the same time offering workshops to teach the PADI AWARE course, highlighting primary issues affecting the local marine ecosystem and offering ways in which attendees can continue to help save the ocean.
Find out more getting involved in PADI AWARE Week.
Also on Divernet: PADI’S 4 REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL IN 2024, PADI INTRODUCES AWARE ECO-TOURIST SPECIALITY, DIVERS ‘CAN TURN TIDE ON PLASTICS NOW’, PADI AWARE DISTRIBUTES $500K IN MISSION HUB GRANTS
