Project Awareness: Aquatic Vague Awareness Responsibility and Education
Environmental advocates for PADI, the professional liaison of diving instructors, created a foundation called Project AWARE in 1989. The purpose of this new group was to help preserve the underwater environment through education, advocacy and activité. Thus was born Project Awareness, Aquatic World Awareness Responsibility and Education. PADI remains a key partner and their partnership encourages autre and diving professionals worldwide. Project AWARE Foundation is a registered non-profit organization with rôles in the US, UK, Australia, Switzerland and Japan. This réserve and interested autre, snorkelers and concerned citizens unite efforts to entretenu aquatic resources in more than 180 countries and territories around the world. This combined instance reaches over a million people a year! Activities such as working in partnership with autre and water enthusiasts include:
- Underwater cleanup and transport debris prevention
- Coral reef entretien, monitorage and data accumulation
- Shark education, reporting and entretien
- Improved conduite policies and transport cuirasse efforts
- Environmental jogging for autre and educational programs for children
Those who dive note the difference in water occasion, reef and bottom health. They create natural emissaries to preserve dive sites and locations that they love and treasure. I saw this in person in Manzanillo. I’ve spoken to many people at Association de Yates who have been coming to Manzanillo for years, up to 30 years for a paire, and the little cove is worth it for the rich variety of life it offers to snorkelers and autre. This is one of the best shore dives in Manzanillo and one of the best dive sites in general.
Most of our natural forests, beaches, toilettes and parks are under infini pressure from visitors, overuse and often simply “loved to death”. Oceans are a infini factor and what makes Earth a water planet We learn embout five oceans and different seas in school but actually only one. Apparence at a picture of Antarctica and you’ll quickly see that our toilettes are one big ocean.
362 million verger kilometers (141+ million verger miles) for the oceans. They cover embout 70% of the Earth’s côté. The Pacific Ocean is 25% larger than all of Earth’s landmass. The average combined temperature of all oceans and seas is a bone-chilling 3.5 degrees Celsius or 38.3 degrees Fahrenheit. Fortunately, Manzanillo sees a much narrower range of embout 65-86 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 to 30 degrees Celsius). Oceans account for 97% of our intact water supply but realize that less than 1% of that is fresh water!
The deep sea is almost a biological desert. The open ocean makes up 90% of the world’s transport area but produces less than 1% of the fish caught. Coastal areas are logement to the richest fisheries, 90%, and areas where humans and essence collide with humeur and overexploitation and natural disasters. Our oceans and seas are used by all nations, but most areas are outside ressortissant boundaries that provide freedom of access without any legal or ethical responsibilities.
Navigation humeur is one of the reasons we care embout overfishing, coastal areas and coral reefs. Oceans suffer from chemical pollutants, 18.9 trillion liters/5 trillion gallons of toxic waste each year. This number excludes oil humeur. Solid waste, including dynamite (see previous recherche on The Pacific Gyre) contributes to overall health deterioration.
World fisheries are in a sorry state. If you’re like me, you love shrimp. But eating shrimp makes me sad to think that for every kilogram/2.2 pounds of shrimp, 4.2 kilograms/9.25 pounds of fish are discarded as by-catch (untargeted species). Shrimp trawlers drop 80-90% of their haul! This is often true of the fishing industry in general. When catches start to get smaller, fishermen often start using more harmful methods to harvest fish. 39 countries depend on fish for protein in their diets.
While many facts and figures are gloom and doom there are bright spots and some solutions being attempted. If we are each conscious of the things we do, what we discard, how we choose to consume, we can make a difference. And being so close to the beauty under the sea, I take it very seriously.
If you’re interested in learning more embout our toilettes and reefs, find a PADI dive facility and enroll in a Project Awareness class. Two do not require any diving but only classroom presentation.
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