NEW Project AWARE Card

The new limited edition AWARE certification card is now available.

Student divers can now choose the new 2010 AWARE version of their PADI certification card, or replace their card, and support underwater conservation. For a minimum donation of £5, any diver can sport the new sea turtle card and know 100 percent of their gift supports protection for the environment they love the most.

Download a copy of
the Project AWARE Limited Edition Card options poster for 2010

Please contact your local Project AWARE office for a copy of this poster in $, AU$, or Euros.

Ask your PADI Instructor or local PADI dive centre / resort for details on how to receive a Project AWARE Limited Edition certification card.

To find out more about Project AWARE Foundation’s ongoing conservation efforts and to become directly involved visit www.projectaware.org.

MEDASSET is pleased to announce the launch of the 2009 interim report of a 3 year Sea Turtle Monitoring and Conservation project in Albania.

In 2009, 137 sea turtles were tagged and released in collaboration with the local fishing community.  A remarkable number of 245 turtles have been tagged since the project started in 2008 at Patok, at the northern coast of Albania in the Adriatic Sea, providing evidence that this is a significant foraging area for loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtles travelling through the Mediterranean.

Fulfilling its main goal for 2009 to focus on capacity building, the project:

• Trained seven local university students as Research Assistants, thus providing the next generation of Albanian scientists the capacity to monitor the sea turtle population of their coastline.
• Offered over 70 Albanian university students the opportunity to attend workshops at Patok during the summer.

Additional activities in 2009 included a waste pollution survey in the Patok area and the analysis of DNA samples collected during fieldwork in collaboration with Adnan Menderes University (Turkey). 

In order to further investigate the migration of these mystery travellers, three turtles (two males and one female) were fitted with transmitters in September 2009 and the first satellite tracking programme of sea turtles in Albania was launched from Patok. “Shpresa” (Hope) has remained within the broader area of Patok, while “Guximtari” (Brave), a true homeboy, has remained within a 6km distance from the release site. “Patoku”, an international traveller, has covered so far 630.10km and is now in Greek waters just off the island of Corfu, in the Ionian Sea.

In 2010, launched by the UN as International Year of Biodiversity, the project team will focus on initiating the legislative process, in order to conserve Albania’s fragile biodiversity and protect the endangered sea turtles visiting its shores.

The 2009 Report of the project “Monitoring and Conservation of Important Sea Turtle Feeding Grounds in the Patok Area of Albania, 2008-2010”, with detailed information on the project activities and research results is available online.

Visit Turtle Tracking at www.medasset.org to view the maps of the migration routes of “Shpresa”, “Guximtari” and “Patoku”.

Help Sandy Seal Reach Safety

Concerned about the lack of protection for Western Australia’s unique marine life, Project AWARE Foundation, in conjunction with Save Our Marine Life alliance partners has launched a fun, new interactive game to highlight the lack of protection for marine life in the region.

Called Unprotected Waters, the game features Sandy Seal – the mascot of the Save Our Marine Life alliance – in a desperate bid to out-run fishing nets, and avoid oil rigs and pollution such as plastic bags in order to survive.

Play the game and see how long you can survive in Unprotected Waters.

Adventure Spot diving centre is joining forces with tourists and the local community to clean and protect the beaches and reefs of Dahab, South Sinai.

On the first Saturday of each month Adventure Spot staff, tourists, and locals meet to take part in beach and underwater activities. Adventure Spot organises and sponsors the diving tanks, scuba equipment and transport needed for all the volunteer divers and snorkelers involved. Each month a reef, dive site, or beach is selected. The aim is to cover as many locations as possible and raise environmental awareness about the impact marine debris has on the environment. This ongoing project offers visitors, the local community, and Adventure Spot diving centre divers, a unique opportunity to give something back to the Red Sea whilst having fun contributing to a safer and cleaner environment.

“Since we started this initiative the response and positive feedback from our divers, staff, beach goers, and locals have been fantastic. All participants enjoyed the experience and we are pleased to see committed volunteers taking part each month” comments Carolina, event coordinator.

From all of us at Project AWARE Foundation “Well Done” Adventure Spot for this great initiative!

Project AWARE Foundation recently inspired over 100 children on the northern beaches of Sydney, Australia to become AWARE Kids.  

A giant mural created at Balmoral Beach engaged children on their school holidays to think about marine rubbish and what we can all do about it.  The Caring for Our Coast event hosted by Mosman Council encouraged children to look after coastal environments. Children joined Project AWARE to glue beach rubbish onto a marine scene mural. After discussing facts about marine debris the enthusiastic kids coloured and cut out beautiful underwater species to feature on the clean and healthy side of the ocean.  Messages about protecting our oceans were added to the scene including “Keep our beaches clean, save the sharks and just fish 3 times a year!”

60 students from the Northern Beaches Christian School learnt about marine debris and plastic pollution when they cleaned up Collaroy Beach in November.  Teacher Julia Small said “The presentation was interactive, informative, exciting, challenging and engaging, a difficult task with 60 students at the beach! We had the most wonderful discussion when we returned to school and the children shared very thoughtful ideas and asked fantastic questions about what they had learnt during the excursion.” 

Teams of students collected a variety of rubbish and discussed plastic pollution. They shared ideas about where the rubbish goes and discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the same size as Queensland.  Visit Project AWARE for more information about AWARE Kids

Kids from the Northbridge International School, Cambodia have been going on snorkelling trips with Project AWARE Go ECO Operator, Scuba Nation for the past 8 years.  2009 saw a different type of snorkelling activity take place as 42 children undertook the AWARE Coral Reef Conservation Specialty – certifying them as the lastest Coral Reef Conservationists!

With a classroom session focusing on the fragileness of coral reefs and how they can help to preserve them, they also learned about the vital role of coral reefs in the marine environment and became familiar with the current state of the world’s reefs. It might sound hard stuff, but the kids had a great time doing the Knowledge Reviews and listening to the lectures.

The students were interested in everything and after some initial shyness, were asking loads of questions – not least several big debates on how to pronounce “zooxanthellae”!

After successfully completing the theory it was time to put what they learnt into practice. Grade 6 and Grade 10 groups went out on a day trip exploring local coral reefs and conducting a beach cleanup as they went. The students spent around an hour picking up trash and collected 5 large black bags full – around 100kg of rubbish. All data was sent to Project AWARE.

They were particularly dismayed by the amount of polystyrene, straws and plastic bottles.  

Gerard Leenen, Manager of Scuba Nation said: “The students had a fun day out and hopefully it’s given them food for thought. Particularly here in Asia, it’s far too easy to throw things on the floor and not think about where it will end up. They know now.”