At both its Malaysia and Indonesia locations, Scuba Junkie are renowned for their continual contribution to their surrounding communities and marine ecosystem. One way they do this is by hosting conservation themed weeks that highlight different conservation issues and educate people on ways to address them.
This year, Scuba Junkie held the inaugural ‘Manta Week,’ co-hosted with the Marine Megafauna Foundation. Events throughout the week raised awareness about our fragile underwater ecosystem, and the threats facing it – and in turn our majestic rays.
The team also hoped that their activities would inspire a new generation of conservation warriors in the customers at the resorts and people in the surrounding communities.
Lydia from Scuba Junkie told us about some of the highlights of the week.
“In both Sangalaki and Komodo there were fun-filled days of community outreach programmes, clean ups and presentations. We were fortunate enough to be able to work with local schools in both locations and give talks on manta rays in Bahasa Indonesia. In Komodo our crew took some of the children from the neighbouring village on a snorkel trip, where they were lucky enough to see mantas cleaning! Those who joined that trip expressed their desires to be PADI Divemasters in the future – exactly what we were hoping to achieve…a new generation of people who are keen to protect the marine world (maybe we’ll start with the PADI Discover Scuba Diving experience first though).
We also did some big clean ups, and talked to the local community about the problems that plastics cause, and why we should all change our habits and reduce the amount of plastic used on daily basis. In the future, we hope to hold workshops on reducing and reusing plastic in the Warloka and Sangalaki area.”
What may be one of the most exciting things to come out of Manta Week however was launching long-term research into manta rays on Sangalaki with the Marine Megafauna Foundation. So far, research into manta rays in Sangalaki has relied solely on citizen science. Going forward, Scuba Junkie Sangalaki will be hosting a member of the Marine Megafauna Foundation team so they are able to conduct more thorough research in the area.
This isn’t Scuba Junkie’s first conservation focus week – nor will it be their last – they have been running such weeks for over ten years now. However as Scuba Junkie grows, there are new opportunities to expand outreach and partnerships – like the newly established partnership with Marine Megafauna Foundation.
We want to congratulate the team at Scuba Junkie for not only Manta Week, but all they do to protect the underwater world. We look forward to hearing about the success of many more events to come.
So what’s next for Scuba Junkie? They will be hosting Marine Week from 3rd – 9th December 2017, focusing on all things marine conservation.
Interested in teaming up with Scuba Junkie on Marine Week or one of their other conservation weeks? Get in touch!
