John Keells 'Dive against Debris' campaign
The International Diving Centre (IDC) and Cinnamon Nature Trails,
based at Chaaya Blu Hotel, recently removed 250 kg of abandoned fishing
nets and plastics from Swamy Rock reef in the seas off Trincomalee as
part of Project Aware's 'Dive Against Debris' campaign.
Both entities have joined forces to take action against marine debris
to raise awareness of this issue.
Project Aware has produced an infographic 'The Ugly Journey of Trash'
which provides an overview of the amount of marine debris plaguing
oceans globally. It states, "over six million tons of marine litter may
be entering our ocean each year" and "as much as 70% of it ends up on
the sea bed".
The ocean is a resource that is critical to our health and livelihood
and yet only around 2% of it is protected, compared to 12% of land.
The scuba community is united in their efforts to conserve the ocean
through PADI's Project Aware movement, an initiative described as 'the
largest global movement of divers acting in their own communities to
protect oceans and implement lasting change'.
The Instructors at the International Dive Centre, Sri Lanka, with
Marine Naturalists for Cinnamon Nature Trails and a few other volunteers
combining their resources, spent half-a-day diving and cutting away
heavy nets, disentangling trapped fish and collecting trash that
littered the reef.
They also contributed data through a survey, which Project Aware uses
to implement change in waste management policies on a local and global
scale.
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