News
Adaptive Liveaboard Diving in Hawaii
Upon arriving at Kailua-Kona Airport one of the first things you realize is you are still in the USA with all of the requisite ADA accommodations. The airport is fully ramped, the airlines are adept at assistance, and taxi vans with lifts and the knowledge to use them are available from GIO Taxi.
If you are arriving prior to the week of spectacular diving or staying over to savor the beautiful town of Kailua-Kona, the hotels recommended by the Aggressor staff are ADA compliant and very convenient to the town and the pier. Most businesses on the main strip are barrier-free.
Arriving at the pier for departure is simple, as vehicles have access to the ship’s pier. The crew is there to welcome you with an easy transfer to the ship directly onto the main deck. You will notice immediately how flexible and accommodating both the boat and the staff are.
Right on the main deck through an extra wide (30 inch) doorway is the main salon, and the 6 primary double cabins open into the salon, which is the central point for meetings, meals, and entertainment. You will quickly realize you can spend your entire week on the main deck and in the water, as it is also the gearing deck and dive platform. The door on cabin #4 is lightly wider (24 inch vs 20 inch) which will more easily accommodate any mobility equipment. In the cabins, the bottom bunks are double with uppers the smaller singles, allowing plenty of headroom to sit up and transfer from the bottom bunk.
Heads in the cabins offer somewhat limited accessibility as you might expect on a small ship, but are doable. Plenty of room in the showers for a seat. All storage, sinks, etc. are at an accessible height and there is sufficient open space in the center of the room for turning. There is a more easily accessible head and hot shower right on the dive deck, which really helps to warm up immediately post dive.
The food may be among the best in town and it goes with you! Any dietary requirements are easily and deliciously prepared from fresh ingredients, provided you give enough notice for them to provision.
All dive operations are from a large staging area with only 3 steps down to a huge dive platform. Staff are willing and able to assist here, and once on the dive platform, entry is simple. The platform can even be lowered in to the water and raised up to facilitate the most demanding entries and exits. The dive staff is experienced with adaptive divers and are well versed in how to make it work for everyone.
The Kona Aggressor offers the opportunity for up to 5 dives each day, allowing the Iron Men all they can handle while also providing for a relaxing week. Dive conditions are very conducive to mobility adaptive diving as the dive sights are on the western side of the Big Island and are sheltered from more extreme elements, leading to light currents, small swells, light winds, and plenty of light underwater. Water temps were 75° – 79° F and any chills you get are melted away by the hot showers and fresh warm towels on the dive platform.
Dives sites can seem slightly repetitive, but the terrain is always varying due to the volcanic activity which created the island and is still ongoing, obvious from the black lava flows through the green verdant land. The prevalence of the majestic mantas and the resident spinner and bottlenose dolphin will keep you on the lookout both above and below the surface. An additional bonus is most dive sites have sandy patches for easy in-water equipment adjustments and for training opportunities. Special treats are the night dives which are also easily accommodating for the adaptive diver – manta dance dives along with a truly special “blackwater” night dive.
With all of this, the Kona Aggressor is clearly the leader when it comes to adaptive diving liveaboards. It offers all of the accommodations for the adaptive diver and has all of the ingredients for a very special dive trip that the entire group will treasure forever… and all at a very reasonable cost.
The Ocean Cleanup, the global non-profit project, has removed a verified all-time total of ten million kilograms (22 million lbs.) of trash from oceans and rivers around the world – approximately the same weight as the Eiffel Tower.
To complete its mission of ridding the oceans of plastic, The Ocean Cleanup uses a dual strategy: cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) to remove the plastic already afloat in the oceans, while stopping the flow of plastic from the world’s most polluting rivers.
Through cleaning operations in the GPGP and in rivers in eight countries, the cumulative total of trash removed has now surpassed ten million kilograms. This milestone demonstrates the acceleration of The Ocean Cleanup’s impact, while underlining the astonishing scale of the plastic pollution problem and the need for continued support and action.
While encouraging for the mission, this milestone is only a staging point: millions more tons of plastic still pollute our oceans and The Ocean Cleanup intends to continue learning, improving and innovating to solve this global catastrophe.
This announcement comes as governments from around the world meet to continue negotiations to develop a new legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution at INC4 in Ottawa, Canada. Representatives of The Ocean Cleanup will be in attendance and the organization will be urging decision-makers to collaborate towards a comprehensive and ambitious global treaty which addresses plastic at all stages of its life cycle and in all marine environments worldwide, including in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
It is encouraging to see that the need for remediation is reflected in the various options for potential treaty provisions. It is essential that the final treaty contains clear targets for the remediation of legacy plastic pollution, and reduction of riverine plastic emissions.
Tackling plastic pollution requires innovative and impactful solutions. The treaty should therefore incentivize the innovation ecosystem by fostering innovations that make maximal use of data, technology and scientific knowledge – such as those designed and deployed by The Ocean Cleanup.
‘After many tough years of trial and error, it’s amazing to see our work is starting to pay off – and I am proud of the team who has brought us to this point.’ said Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup. ‘While we still have a long way to go, our recent successes fill us with renewed confidence that the oceans can be cleaned.’
The Ocean Cleanup was founded in 2013 and captured its first plastic in 2019, with the first confirmed catch in the GPGP coming soon after the deployment of Interceptor 001 in Jakarta, Indonesia. After surpassing one million kilograms of trash removed in early 2022, the non-profit project has since progressed to the third iteration of its GPGP cleaning solution, known as System 03, and a network of Interceptors currently covering rivers in eight countries, with more deployments set for 2024.
About The Ocean Cleanup
The Ocean Cleanup is an international non-profit organization that develops and scales technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. They aim to achieve this goal through a dual strategy: stemming the inflow via rivers and cleaning up the legacy plastic that has already accumulated in the ocean. For the latter, The Ocean Cleanup develops large-scale systems to efficiently concentrate the plastic for periodic removal. This plastic is tracked and traced through DNV’s chain of custody model to certify claims of origin when recycling it into new products. To curb the tide via rivers, The Ocean Cleanup has developed Interceptor™ solutions to halt and extract riverine plastic before it reaches the ocean. Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat, The Ocean Cleanup now employs a broadly multi-disciplined team of approximately 140. The foundation is headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
For more information, visit: theoceancleanup.com and follow @theoceancleanup on social media.
Marine Life & Conservation
Steve Backshall to headline Shark Trust’s flagship event: For the Love of Sharks
Join a host of amazing, shark loving, speakers including Steve Backshall and the Shark Trust team for an evening celebrating shark conservation at the Royal Geographical Society in London this November.
Date: 29th November 2024
Time: 6-10pm
Location: Royal Geographical Society, London
Tickets: https://www.sharktrust.org/Event/flos24
The event will be a celebration of all things shark. Those lucky enough to get hold of tickets will hear from engaging guest speakers with a passion for sharks.
The line-up includes (*subject to change if unforeseen circumstances arise)
Steve Backshall: One of television’s busiest presenters, BAFTA award-winning wildlife expert Steve has been passionate about the wild world ever since he was young.
Steve’s impressive TV career has taken him all around the world, investigating a wide array of species and environments. Steve has filmed over 100 hours of children’s wildlife programmes with the BAFTA award winning Deadly 60 franchise and recently, with Sky Nature, for his new series ‘Whale with Steve Backshall’. He has been a patron for the Shark Trust for 10 years.
Simon Rogerson: is a photojournalist specialising in natural history, diving and the sea.
He is editor of SCUBA magazine, the official journal of the British Sub-Aqua Club. Simon started his career as a crime reporter but gravitated towards his ‘less depressing’ interest in underwater exploration, joining the staff of DIVE magazine in 1999. In 2005 he was named ‘Editor of the Year’ in the PPA’s Independent Publishing Awards. Simon also works as a freelance writer, contributing frequently to the Sunday Times and Telegraph, in addition to BBC Wildlife, Esquire, and a host of international diving magazines. He is the author of a book, Dive Red Sea, published by Ultimate Sports. Now based in Berkshire, Simon has been a Patron of the Shark Trust for 20 years.
More speakers to be announced soon. Head to the Shark Trust website to learn more.
The evening will also allow guests the final chance to see the Oceanic 31, shark art exhibition. Some of the artwork will be auctioned/raffled at the event, while the rest will be auctioned online to raise money for the Shark Trust Oceanic Programme.
For the Love of Sharks is an evening with something for everyone who is interested and fascinated by sharks. Join the Shark Trust, their Patrons, Trustees and Staff, along with a host of supporters for this celebration of shark conservation.
For more information or to buy a ticket: https://www.sharktrust.org/Event/flos24
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