News
Aggressor Adventures staff collect 800 lbs of coastal trash in international clean-up effort!

International adventure travel leaders, Aggressor Adventures, has completed its first multi-country, shoreline clean-up at locations in the Galapagos, Belize, Palau, and Roatan, Honduras. Forty Aggressor staff dedicated 170 man-hours during June’s official Ocean Clean Up Month, filling over 60 trash bags with 800 pounds of trash covering a cumulative 2.55-mile area.
“As divers, we know the oceans need our help now more than ever, and here at Aggressor Adventures we get that,” says Samantha Whitcraft, Aggressor’s Director of Conservation and Outreach. “Scientist estimate that more than nine million metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year comprised mostly of everyday items like bottles, wrappers, straws, and bags. By adding this yearly clean-up to our Green the Fleet sustainability initiatives, we will continue to be part of the solution and help divers understand how they can be too.”
This first annual Aggressor Adventures’ Great Shoreline Clean-up is an active way for Aggressor’s staff to further expand the company’s sustainability accomplishments by cleaning up local waterways and coastal areas while engaging with local communities.
Aggressor Adventure’s CEO Wayne Brown says:
“We strive every day for excellence in our green operations that are already in place, yet as global adventurers, we witness first-hand the impact pollution has on our surrounding environment, especially our oceans. It’s our responsibility to change that. I’m so proud of our staff and their success with this shoreline clean-up. As a company, we continue to be pro-active when it comes to keeping our adventures environmentally sustainable for our customers, for future generations, and for the planet.”
For more information, visit www.aggressor.com
Source: www.divenewswire.com
Gear Reviews
Gear Review: Gemini Switch Box from Lungfish (Watch Video)

In a video shot exclusively for Scubaverse.com, Jeff Goodman reviews the Gemini Switch Box from Lungfish.
For more information, visit www.lungfishdivesystems.com and www.facebook.com/divelungfish
Dive Training Blogs
Jump into… A career in diving

A career in doing something that you love… I have heard so many times that diving is just a hobby and not a career. A career by definition is ‘an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress.’
I started diving at the age of 17. I became a PADI Divemaster and from this point progressed to an Open Water instructor, to Staff Instructor, to Master Instructor, to Course Director. Surely by definition this is a career path? The only difference (in some cases) that would dispute this matter… the controversial subject of pay!
I am 100% not going to say that no dive centres in the world pay. I myself do, and I know others that do, too. It does however seem to have become very much the norm, that the ‘because I enjoy it’ philosophy has eradicated the UK diving career path for years. Divers volunteering their help for little or no reward (again… not everyone before you stop reading). To eventually realising, that they are doing hard work, for not much to gain… even paying to carry on doing courses, and to become an instructor to work for that centre. What is all that about?!
If you are the type of person to be happy with that, that is completely fine, so long as you are happy. I was at one point… and then realised that I had invested a lot of my time and money, and when this realisation hit, started to feel undervalued. The instructor I was ‘working for’, for a free hot chocolate at the end of the day, would sit in the cafe whilst I taught in the 3 degree waters in the middle of winter. Obviously the paying customer had booked his course through this person and not me… I was happy with a hot chocolate and having fun… but aren’t all of the best careers the ones that we do not see as work. They aren’t all volunteer roles.
Those of you looking for a career in diving, don’t be put off. There are places that you can work, and a career in diving can literally take you all across the world. Those saying that there is no money in diving… ignore those guys too. There is. Obviously working for free is never going to get you there, but if you want to do it, then do it. There are plenty of places not only looking to employ scuba instructors, there are other jobs at aquariums, conservation roles, the Navy and many others for you to take a look at.
There are also grants to look at for education, the open water instructor course, or anything else after that is not exactly cheap… but still nonetheless worthwhile.
So, please do not take away the fact of diving being a career. It is. The only thing that I will leave you with (dropping a bombshell), is that if we accept the fact of ‘working for free’ then it will never change and still be hard to make a career in diving… I mean, of course there is limited need when there is still the alternate option for a business to have free labour.
Clare began Duttons Divers at just 19 years old and a short while later became one of the world’s youngest PADI Course Directors. Find out more at www.duttonsdivers.com
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