SLO active partners with Project AWARE in a pledge for a healthier ocean

We are extremely excited to announce our partnership with Project AWARE as we include them in our EARTH TO OCEAN giving model.

Originally starting as a shared ethic as part of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI), Project Aware has grown into a community of more than 50,000 members in over 114 countries dedicated to having clean, healthy waters surround our coastlines.

This woman-led charity’s extensive global reach has led to the public becoming increasingly aware of the overwhelming impact overfishing and pollution has in disrupting underwater life. Through working alongside local communities, the Project AWARE focuses on reversing the damage done to ecosystems and rejuvenating marine health so that those, with and without fins, can both thrive in their relationship with our oceans.

Three Project AWARE initiatives we love:

Dive Against Debris

Officially launched in 2011, divers around the world have reported collecting over one million pieces of trash as of 2018. Unique in nature, this initiative encourages all those with scuba skills to utilise their time in the ocean to collect data to help Project AWARE find long-term resolutions to marine debris clean up. Those interested can get involved by ‘adopting a Dive Site™’ that promotes monthly ‘Dive Against Debris’ expeditions or can teach the incentive to encourage your community to participate in a movement dedicated to collecting marine debris from around the world to keep our waters healthy.

Protecting sharks and rays

Calling for international change, Project AWARE, alongside various partners, is upholding for all shark species to be registered as Endangered or Critically Endangered by the IUCN and for the regulation of shark fishing to include all fins be naturally attached. Joining with Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the two are combining resources to help protect sharks and rays from being swallowed up into the international trade movement, that often threatens the species survival. So far, the organisation has helped guarantee a firmer EU Fishing ban and protection for Manta Rays under the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) in 2011.

Clean Ocean

Through their objective, Partnerships Against Trash, Project AWARE is working alongside businesses, NGOs and governments to promote long-term for waste management policies at all levels of government. In key alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the charity is committed to reaching the 2030 agenda for sustainable development through the Clean Ocean ethos.

• • • We hope you are just as excited as we are to partner with an organisation embodying causes at the core of what SLO active stands for.