In keeping with our commitment to fight for the local protection and monitoring of our favorite underwater playground, July is the third month of our participation in Adopt a Dive Site. We at Dive Funatics are happy to combine our efforts and commitment towards the Adopt A Dive Site initiative through Dive Against Debris in conjunction with the celebration of Women Dive Day in one special event. We’ve gathered 18 lady divers and 11 men divers to celebrate PADI Women Dive Day 2016. We may have gathered a small group but we are proud to be part of a much larger women in diving initiative aimed to strengthen and grow the female dive community along with 600+ Women Dive Day events organized by different PADI Centers in 70 countries.

We were graced with a range of women coming from all walks of life – from a lady diver who traveled from Leyte to get a break from her college studies, a mother-and-daughter tandem passing around a camera to take underwater photos of each other, sisters easily mistaken as twins both in and out of the water, Thai friends celebrating another friend’s birthday underwater, a Miss Scuba Philippines, a lady chef, dive professionals and lovely corporate millennials both women, and women at heart. We also had the lovely support group of men from the regional maritime unit of the Philippine National Police and other dive professionals as well. Of the total 29 divers at the start of the day, 23 joined the last dive which was a dive against debris.

An estimated 20kg of debris was cleared from the our adopted dive site of Kontiki Marina. Most of the debris collected were food packaging materials, cloth and fish lines. More information about the debris collected, as reported to Project Aware can be found here. We are happy to report that no paint cans were collected in this month’s dive against debris. However, we also bring bad news. Among the rolls of cloth we have collected, there was one juvenile brokenline wrasse all caught up and already dead. We have also noticed an increasing presence of wet wipes. Wet wipes, comprised mostly of plastic fibers, don’t easily disintegrate. Marine life munching on jellyfishes are most vulnerable as wet wipes and plastic appear like jellyfishes underwater. When eaten by animals, plastic fibers end up in their stomach and they get no nutrition and contributes to death by starvation.

For the participants of this event, feel free to tag yourselves in the photos posted in our Facebook Page. The album can be accessed here. Missed this years event? Don’t worry. Mark your calendar for next year’s PADI Women Dive Day event which will be on July 15, 2017.

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