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*NEWS* |
15th September - PADI International Reef Clean Up Day
15th September 2007 brought PADI International Reef and Beach Clean Up day that is observed by all environmentally aware dive centers and water enthusiasts alike world wide. All bodies of water in all environments can be polluted more than we imagine and it's our responsibility to assist in the preservation of the oceans as divers and decent human beings alike. Mermaids Dive Center of course got involved in the day in a very big way. Sue from Mermaids arranges beach and coral reef clean ups monthly but this was on a rather larger scale. With 2 of the Mermaids boats out we had 61 participants including 46 divers and 15 snorklers and guys and gals along for moral support. The Pattaya People News Paper joined us for the day also to cover the story to assist in highlighting the problem to those not aware.
The location of the Reef and Beach clean up project was Koh Sak, Pattaya. Koh Sak South was the target. This island can make a wonderful dive site with some very nice corals indeed. Koh Sak is one of the inner islands in Pattaya bay and can often be used for a mooring point for fishing boats if the seas are rough of an evening. This is largely, sadly where a lot of the waste that we collected originated from. The day was a great success with a morning dive collecting as much as possible. This was broken with a great lunch and then a couple of hours of beach clean up. It was a very hot day and most were happy to get back in the water for the second dive to collect more trash.
In total over 1600 Lbs of trash was collected in over 120 dustbin liner bags. Amongst the most unusual items found were a scuba tank pressure tester, a carpet, and a fiberglass boat. Other waste collected amounted to - 88 Bags, 45 Plastic bottles, 706 Beer Bottles, 92, beer cans, 49 Caps/lids, 76 shoes and other clothing, 55 food wrappers, 43 plates and cutlery, 1 Shotgun Shell, 100 toys, 7 playing cards, 2 bleach bottles, 1 float, 11 lobster traps, 5 crates, 11 fishing lines, 19 fishing nets, 3 fish light sticks, 7 light bulbs, 1 oil lube bottle, 102 ropes, 23 plastic tarps, 14 engine fan belts, 5 cigarettes, 65 cigarette lighters, 18 batteries, 2 tobacco packages, 15 car parts, 21 tyres, 42 electrical cables.
The tyres proved to be the most of a challenge dive to the sheer weight. Divers used marker buoys to surface mark where the tyres were. Once ready the divers entered with lift bags to bring the tyres back to the boat for proper disposal.
A great day was had by all of the divers assisting in the project. In the evening we had a large party at Shooters Bar Walking Street Pattaya. There must have been over 60 divers present. We had a raffle that raised a good amount of funding for PADI Project Aware. Many of the prizes were generously donated back to be auctioned off allowing a much higher figure for Project Aware. See the Pattaya People PADI International Clean Up Report - PDF 166Kb
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