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Inspiring the next generation of Ocean Guardians with the Maldives’ First Manta Festival

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Manta Trust and Four Seasons Resorts partner with Baa Atoll UNESCO Biosphere Reserve to raise awareness of marine plastic pollution and manta rays in the Maldives.

The Manta Trust is hosting the first ever Baa Atoll Manta Festival on 24th November 2018 on Baa. Dharavandhoo. This unique day aims to celebrate the diverse marine life of the Maldives and raise awareness of threats to it – mostly from climate change and plastic pollution – amongst local communities and schools. School students will have the opportunity, many for the first time, to
learn to snorkel, thanks to generous donations of snorkelling equipment from luxury tourist resorts in Baa Atoll.


The festival takes place in the Baa Atoll UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, a World-famous destination to see manta rays, the gentle giants of the ocean, which can aggregate in numbers of over 200 in the renowned Hanifaru Bay. The day will be a lively mixture of enlightening talks from marine biology & conservation experts, competitions and educational stalls from a fantastic variety of local marine & government organisations, along with resorts’ marine biology teams, and school students. In the evening the festival will culminate with performances by Maldivian celebrity ‘Shiuz’ along with traditional music and food from local communities. Visitors and guests are welcome at the festival without any ticket needed.


This is an event bringing together all the schools, communities, resorts and environmental organisations in Baa Atoll and beyond to celebrate and raise awareness of what is really important to us all – our ocean. We are surrounded by the ocean yet often disconnected from the beautiful creatures that are facing huge human-driven threats just off our shores. Here we can all come
together to start to make a change” says Shafee Ali, Outreach Officer for the Biosphere Reserve Office.


The Manta Trust is delighted to be partnering with the Biosphere Reserve Office, Four Seasons Resorts, Baa Atoll Council and Dharavandhoo Council to deliver this exciting event. The festival is sponsored by 12 luxury tourist resorts in Baa Atoll – Four Seasons, Vakkaru, Coco Palm, Kihaa Maldives, Anantara Kihavah, Royal Island, Milaidhoo, Reethi Beach, Finolhu, Amilla Fushi, Dusit Thani and Soneva Fushi, as well as luxury travel agent Manta Reisen.


We are very grateful to all the local tourist resorts that have sponsored the festival and generously donated Cressi snorkelling equipment to every school in Baa Atoll” explains Flossy Barraud, from The Manta Trust “This has not only enabled local students to attend the Baa Atoll Manta Festival, but also to have snorkelling lessons to teach them to use their new equipment for years to come. Despite being surrounded by water, many Maldivians – especially females – rarely snorkel to witness the beauty under the waves.

The Manta Trust hopes the Baa Atoll Manta Festival will leave a lasting legacy for the communities of Baa Atoll – inspiring the next generation to become Ocean Guardians in the Maldives.

For more information about The Manta Trust visit their website by clicking here.

 

Gear News

Introducing the Aqua-Trek Evo Drysuit from BARE

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drysuit

This lightweight Aqua-Trek Evo drysuit from BARE is patterned after the flagship X-Mission Evolution using the company’s exclusively engineered Cordura® Nylon Oxford 4-Layer fabric for a durable and breathable design. The Aqua-Trek Evo is ready for wherever your adventure takes you.

FEATURES AND BENEFITS

  • Lighter weight breathable material that offers enhanced flexibility over current butyl trilaminate
  • Lightweight low-profile plastic dry zipper
  • 2mm nylon/smoothskin “Smart Collar” with vented neck drain provides an improved seal with the BARE dry hood
  • Low-profile valves Lightweight low-profile plastic dry zipper and offset protected zipper flap to avoid contact between dry zipper and outer flap
  • Anatomically shaped torso, arms and legs
  • M-PADz knee protection with 2mm neoprene backing provides added padding for comfort
  • 2 needle “felled seam” construction increases seam integrity, is low-profile and less prone to abrasion, and finishes for a clean look
  • Flexible double-taped reinforcement at “critical wear” seam points for added durability
  • Bellow Pocket with D-ring and drain grommets on each thigh
  • Field replaceable 4-point suspenders and crotch strap
  • Tech dry boots installed

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Material:

  • Exclusively engineered and durable Cordura® Nylon Oxford 4-Layer fabric
  • Lighter weight, breathable material that offers enhanced flexibility, abrasion and puncture resistance

Find out more about BARE products at www.baresports.com.

Sea & Sea is the home of BARE and other Huish Outdoors diving brands in the UK.

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Reef-World marks two decades of marine conservation: strengthening impact amid coral reef threats

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reef world foundation

Empowering ocean stakeholders to tackle future challenges and ensure the survival of coral reefs and humanity

2024 marks the 20th Anniversary of The Reef-World Foundation’s tireless efforts for global coral reef conservation. The UK charity is the international coordinator of the UN Environment Programme’s Green Fins initiative, known as the leading voice in sustainable marine tourism. Today, Reef-World released its 2023-2024 Impact Report outlining a year of substantive growth and impact in its marine conservation programmes. 

Impact Report Highlights:

  • Impressive improvements in environmental behaviours to protect coral reefs by the marine tourism industry as the global participation of Green Fins increases.
  • Continued capacity building for government and NGO staff to effectively manage marine tourism activities in Asia, Caribbean and Red Sea regions. 
  • For the first time in Green Fins’ 20-year history, tourism operators have achieved ‘Best Environmental Performer’ status by demonstrating the lowest possible environmental impact in their environmental assessments. In 2024, three dive operators achieved this challenging milestone. 
  • Significant increases in global participation of Reef-World’s innovative digital conservation tools.
  • 138 Green Fins dive operator members achieved the strict threshold for PADI Eco Center recognition.
  • Developed four new educational materials and translated two into 16 languages to support the marine tourism industry in achieving sustainability targets.
  • Establishing a new Reef-World Development strategy and recruiting new roles – Development and Programmes Managers. 
  • Reef-World’s board welcomes new Chair and Trustees strengthening organisational leadership. 

Reef-World started as a one-person mission to inspire and empower communities to act in conserving and sustainably developing coral reefs and related ecosystems. Today, the team of 12 continues to meet this mission by inspiring and empowering the global marine tourism community to be exemplary sustainability leaders by using the Green Fins guidelines and tools to simultaneously use and protect the world’s precious reefs. 

In April 2024, the fourth global coral reef bleaching event was confirmed. Reef-World’s work has never been more urgent as the marine environment, and the benefits they provide humanity, continue to be eroded by global threats. The reduction of local threats, like those from the marine tourism industry, is an essential step to ensuring a future where coral reefs survive and continue to support the millions of people who depend on their ecosystem benefits. Reef-World’s work buys time for coral reefs and related ecosystems to be resilient to the impacts of global threats. 

 

“Right now our corals are facing the greatest fight of their existence as the terrifying predictions of the steps towards their complete extinction are starting to come true. But all is not lost, reefs are resilient and they have existed on this planet for millions of years. We must take action now, to buy time for reefs by reducing threats facing them and allowing them to react and adjust to the changing environment they need to survive in.” – Chloe Harvey, Executive Director

Looking Forwards: 

Like coral reefs, the Reef-World team needs to be resilient in the face of the complex challenges of the conservation sector. Reef-World has invested significantly in developing a Culture of Care to ensure the well-being of its team on a daily basis, continuing to be an exemplary employer to enable its team to best achieve the mission for coral reef conservation.

With the foundations of a Culture of Care and organisational development laid, Reef-World is emerging from the end of a natural organisation life cycle, that brings the challenges of growth and scale, stronger than ever. With a new strategy in place to generate much needed resources, Reef-World is excited for the opportunities to leap forward, continue to scale our impact and lean into new innovations and untapped opportunities for marine conservation. 

We continually strive to become a forward-thinking organisation that delivers on our goals and commitments to our stakeholders with fresh approaches and not being afraid of steering away from a “normal approach.” This approach is not only applied to our programmes of work but also internally and carries over to our Culture of Care for our team.” — JJ Harvey, Operations Director

reef world foundation

The Reef-World Foundation is immensely grateful for the continued support of its grant funders: UN Environment Programme, IUCN’s Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility, Adventure Travel Conservation Fund, PADI Aware Foundation, and World Nomads Footprints Program.

Reef-World would also like to express its gratitude to international partners whose vital support has resulted in significant tangible benefits for our work and mission: PADI; Professional SCUBA Schools International (PSS); Explorer Ventures; 1% for the Planet; ZuBlu; Snorkel Venture, GSTC; Dive O’Clock; Seven Dragons; DiveAssure and Eco Beach, without whom these achievements would not be possible.

The full 2023–2024 Annual Impact Report is available on Reef-World’s website.

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