Marine Life & Conservation
PADI AWARE announces first recipients of 2022 Mission Hub Community Grant Programme
PADI AWARE Foundation™ has announced the first recipients of its 2022 Mission Hub Community Grant Programme and began accepting the next round of applications to protect our blue planet.
From giant kelp rehabilitation to the protection of vulnerable sea turtle species, sixteen community initiatives around the planet were selected, fueling both local and global ocean change. Additionally, PADI AWARE™ has dedicated nearly one-quarter of its public funds to fund additional recipients this year with a goal to substantially increase funding in the next two to five years.
“We are thrilled to launch this new fund that directly supports community-based ocean conservation projects. There are so many PADI Dive Centres and NGOs driving meaningful local action, often with little or no funding support,” says Danna Moore, PADI AWARE Foundation’s Global Director. “To help ensure these efforts succeed, PADI AWARE is committing 24% of our donations this year to the Community Grant Programme, with a goal of reaching $1million USD in funding by 2024.”
LOVE for the ocean is our drive to work in marine conservation. Gili Matra Reserve – Indonesia
PADI AWARE Community Grants are awarded to ocean protection initiatives and projects in direct support of PADI’s Blueprint for Ocean Action and the United Nations Decade of Science for Sustainable Development, in five distinct categories: coral restoration, developing Marine Protected Areas, eliminating marine debris, reducing the effects of climate change, and protecting species threatened with extinction like sharks and turtles.
PADI joins PADI AWARE in celebrating the following initiatives, welcoming them into the 2022 Mission Hub Community Grant Programme:
Category: Coral Restoration (6 Funded Projects)
Ready to deploy the first hex domes in the Gili Matra Reserve – Gili Islands Indonesia
Coral Catch / Gili Shark Conservation: To provide 20 scholarships to local Indonesian women to receive training and education in conservation and coral restoration, enabling them to grow and plant corals, and restoring the reef in the Gili Matra Reserve.
Reef Renewal Foundation: To expand local community involvement in Curacao to increase coral restoration initiatives by providing supplies, tools and training for two dive shops (Scubacao and Goby Divers) to run successful, long-term coral restoration projects.
Dodo Reef Restoration / Dodo Divers LTD: To support the restoration of 10,000 sqm of degraded reef by transplanting cultivated coral colonies over a 4 year period.
Coral Reef Restoration in Natewa Bay / Ocean Ventures Fiji: To install coral nurseries in two different reef structures and communities in Natewa Bay.
Coral Restoration / Big Bubble Dive Resort: To replant native coral species through citizen science in Chalok Bay, Koh Tao.
Nusa Islands Restoration Project / Blue Corner Dive: To restore coral in a degraded reef flat and slope to stabilise rubble substrate and stimulate coral recovery along the northern coastline of Penida Island.
Category: Vulnerable Species Protection (3 Funded Projects)
Photo: Neil Garrick-Maidment, The Seahorse Trust
Bubbles Turtles & Reef Conservation Project / Bubbles Dive Resort: To protect a local turtle nesting site in Perhentian Besar, Terengganu, Malaysia by providing community training and beach patrols, while changing behaviors through education and presentations to local schools and groups to reduce turtle egg consumption.
Aqualife Conservancy: To save the threatened shark-like ray species in Ghana through assessments that include landing surveys, field studies and interviews to gather data that will drive the design of short and medium-term conservation strategies including the development of a locally-managed coastal protected area to safeguard these rays and their critical ecosystem.
The Seahorse Trust: To discover, identify and monitor two marine seahorse species found in Maltese waters: Spiny Seahorse and Short Snouted Seahorse, providing the baseline data needed to protect them by analyzing habitat, pollution and other disturbances versus population density.
Category: Climate Change (2 Funded Projects)
Giant Kelp Forest Restoration / Aquarius Dive Shop: to protect California’s threatened kelp forests by testing rehabilitation and protection methods – including the removal of invasive species – as well as replanting and growing new kelp.
Posidonia Restoration / Kosamare: Year one of a three-year phased project to scientifically monitor and report on the Posidonia habitat, install permanent moorings and restore the marine habitat.
Category: Marine Protected Areas (2 Funded Projects)
Bull Sharks – SRMR Rehabilitation / Beqa Adventure Divers
SRMR Rehabilitation / Beqa Adventure Divers: To assess the degradation of Shark Reef Marine Reserve through biodiversity assessments and fish counts and bolster ecosystem health through both coral restoration and restoration of the giant clam population.
Save the Red Coral Reefs / 7 Perle A.S.D.: To establish a biological monitoring programme to protect a delicate habitat that includes seagrass endemic to the Mediterranean through seabed surveys at multiple depths, determining the extent a habitat can be protected from intensive fishing pressure.
Category: Marine Debris (3 Funded Projects)
No Trash Left Behind/ Florida Keys Dive Center: To unite the community around diving with a purpose and decrease marine debris found at local dive sites.
Seattle Dive Tours: To successfully remove the growing amount of debris from the Des Moines Marina.
Project by AquaMarine Diving Bali: To further the work of the Blue Project which provides educational programmes for local schools, coral restoration coverages, turtle and mangrove conservation, and Dive Against Debris.
“Everyone, everywhere can make a positive difference and together, create a healthy ocean for all. Whoever you are, from individuals to communities, business to government, the time to change is now,” says Rose Huizenga – co-founder of Gili Shark Conservation and founder of Coral Catch. “Thanks to the PADI AWARE Mission Hub Community Grant Programme, we are one step closer to achieving our goal of offering 20 local women a coral restoration scholarship and doing just that.”
Throughout the coming year, PADI AWARE will be sharing success stories from the field, providing the world with a much-needed dose of ocean hope, as well as real examples of how the efforts of a few can result in global, positive ocean change.
The grant programme is open to all PADI Dive Centres around the world and to locally based NGOs and charities working on marine conservation issues with an operating budget below US$1 million.
PADI AWARE is currently accepting new proposals for funding, with a deadline of Earth Day, April 22, 2022. To learn more and apply, visit www.padi.com/aware/grant-funding-criteria.
Header Image: Neil Garrick-Maidment, The Seahorse Trust
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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