(DiverWire) – Today is World Ocean Day. As part of the celebration, the Project AWARE Foundation announced is is relaunching the organization with new strategies combining grassroots action with policy change to protect the ocean.
In the last two decades, scuba divers have emerged as leaders in underwater conservation globally. Project AWARE’s relaunch signals the start of an even more powerful movement where divers can unite like never before to protect the world’s oceans, according to Project AWARE Foundation officials. The organization this morning also unveiled a new logo, which will appear in promotional and marketing efforts starting immediately.
“We’re a passionate and growing community – a movement with a purpose – and scuba divers are significant, economic and political stakeholders that are ready and willing to push for change,” says Dr. Drew Richardson, Chairman of the Board for Project AWARE Foundation. “Now, divers, numbering in the millions worldwide, will combine their underwater efforts and actions for long-term change.”
With so many conservation issues converging on our ocean planet, Project AWARE divers in more than 180 countries will focus on two major challenges where divers are uniquely positioned to affect real change –sharks in peril and marine debris – increasingly recognized as two of the most serious ocean issues of our time.
“By intensifying focus and taking action on these two critical issues, divers will dramatically expand our work together across the globe to make a significant impact,” said Richardson. “Specifically, Project AWARE’s new citizen science program – Dive Against Debris – will contribute underwater data that is so critically needed to support policies that will result in a permanent, measurable reduction in marine debris entering the ocean.”
For more than 20 years, Project AWARE has partnered with dive professionals and underwater volunteers to conserve underwater environments. Since that time, more than 1000 dive operators and countless dive volunteers have committed to marine protection efforts.
Project AWARE Foundation’s growing global movement is bolstered by new online tools that make it easier for divers to work together. The “re-launch” press release outlined these tools, which include:
· An online community called My Ocean – where scuba divers and professionals around the world will contribute marine debris data, communicate with one another and share their own stories about local conservation efforts.
· New programs and scuba specialty courses focused on two major underwater issues: sharks in peril and marine debris.
· Savvy tools and resources that will help dive leaders and volunteers collect and report underwater data central to our work, maximize ocean protection efforts and environmental events.
For more details, go to Project AWARE Foundation
