PADI, PADI AWARE and Seiko are supporting an attempt to break the world record of the largest ever underwater cleanup, during AWARE Week this 24th September in Portugal. Will you help us?
To learn more about the event, set to take place just south of Lisbon, I caught up with the organizers, Debora and Ruben, to learn more.
I’m excited to join you this September and meet all the other divers coming together to make dive history! Can you introduce yourselves?
I guess the best way to describe ourselves would be to say when fire and water meet! Both of us are volunteer firefighters, and have nearly 100 dives around the world, among sharks, wrecks, caves, from freezing cold waters in Iceland, to the warm beauty of Maldives and the Red Sea! This is just a small introduction of the memories our eyes have captured after the exciting moment of ‘descent’.
Tell us more about the event, what is happening?
Imagine that for a day, you could surround yourself with people that have one big purpose together: to save our oceans. On the 24th September in Sesimbra, Portugal, we will break the record for the biggest underwater cleanup of the world with 700 divers! You can be one of those and then enjoy the beauty of Sesimbra above and below water, with superb dive spots and incredible beaches. You could also share and hear diving stories from around the world. Learn more and sign up here, we need you!
Why have you organized this event?
We believe in a world where we can dive with our future generations and be a small part of all the living beings underwater, and not a world where we swim with more plastic than any other things. It’s important to take action in every way we can and together we can answer the ocean’s call for help.
How and why should divers get involved?
All of us need our oceans to survive and divers more than anyone know the beauty and hidden treasures that those who stand on the surface just can’t see. To assure that all of the life we love to see, when breathing through a regulator, continues to be there, we have to stand together and take action. This event is the starting point of something greater, cleaner, healthier and full of color and bubbles.
What do you hope to achieve?
This event will show the plastic problem that we are currently facing around the world, that has already killed countless fish, reef coral and others. This will increase in a larger scale and number if we don’t cherish and protect what we have. But in such a dark point of view, there’s a light. On this day all of the divers will proudly grab a bag and clean the habitat we love to explore. All of us will be a part of a big difference and a changing point.
Bottom line, together in Sesimbra we can inspire the world to save the oceans.
Seiko: Official Partner of PADI and PADI AWARE Foundation’s Marine Debris Program
As a proud sponsor of PADI AWARE Foundation’s marine debris program, Seiko will further the impact of the important work of the flagship citizen-science program, Dive Against Debris®, that not only removes debris but, perhaps more importantly, leverages findings to inform ocean-friendly policy change to prevent further pollution from entering the ocean. To support this world-first event, Seiko is providing hundreds of mesh bags for divers to use to collect debris at the event.
