Today marks the first of our monthly dive against debris in Kontiki, Mactan, Cebu.

A lot of our friends who were interested in diving with us today had last minute changes and out of town activities so we were afraid that we are left with just be doing the dives with a handful of people. Surprisingly, the rain came, after months of hot and dry days with heat index soaring at an alarming rate, it finally poured this morning. It almost felt like we are never going to be effective in today’s debris survey. Thankfully, friends started to arrive.

We had a total of 9 participants, all certified divers, most are seasoned ones and never strangers to debris gathering. After the planning and briefing, and assembling of our gear under the rain, we finally entered the water around 1030 in the morning. The visibility was badly affected by the pouring rain, and the jellyfish and their broken stinging tentacles were everywhere. Then again, nothing could have prevented us from doing the survey in the first place so with a few more seasoned divers and professionals joining us, a successful dive against debris survey was inevitable.

We managed to collect over 14kgs of debris, and most of the things that we have collected were made of plastic. Data collected during the survey were reported to Project Aware, and may be viewed from the Project Aware’s Dive Against Debris map.

Other than having collected debris and reported our survey, 2 of our participants earned the Dive Against Debris Diver Specialty, paving the way for Dyordz to earn his 5th PADI Specialty rating, a requirement for earning his coveted PADI Master Scuba Diver Rating, the highest rating a recreational diver can earn!

This coming June, we will be doing another survey and hopefully, some of our friends are able to join this fun and fulfilling activity.

Lastly, we wish to thank everyone who joined and made this effort successful. We cannot thank you enough for showing your support. You guys know who you are.