Advancing the Blueprint for Ocean Action
Taking place 18-26 September 2021, the fourth annual AWARE Week encourages and inspires the global PADI Membership to lead conservation activities and courses focused on local action for global impact. The global event will advance the PADI Conservation Blueprint that charts a decade of conservation action in direct support of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
PADI, together with the newly announced and publicly funded global charity PADI AWARE Foundation, aim to take existing programs – Vulnerable Species Protection and Marine Debris – to the next level, while building on our leadership in marine conservation by tackling other, equally important marine conservation issues including Climate Change, Marine Protected Areas and Coral Reefs.
As a PADI Dive Professional, you are already a leader of the PADI Torchbearer Community. By signing yourself and your dive center up to the PADI Torchbearer database, you are choosing to become a Mission Hub and stay engaged with current conservation actions that you and your divers can take to save the ocean.
Whatever your conservation experience, your leadership counts and you can make a difference. Join us today to magnify the dive community’s collective conservation power, and get ready to be called upon to lead action for meaningful change.
Get Involved This AWARE Week
The power of PADI AWARE lies in you – passionate local dive professionals and operators with a deep connection to the ocean and desire to protect it. Here’s how you can take local action for global impact, this AWARE Week and beyond.
Conduct a Dive Against Debris®
Keep your favorite dive site free of debris and contribute to the largest global underwater database in the world. To achieve our goal of reducing marine debris by 50% in targeted countries by 2030, we need everyone working together at all levels.
Any PADI Dive Center, Resort or Professional can conduct a survey and help to tackle marine debris issues head on. Promote your Dive Against Debris events on the Conservation Activities Locator and PADI Torchbearer Facebook Group.
Submit Your Data
PADI AWARE Foundation’s policy work helps advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 14 – Life Below Water. To do so, quality data is required. As dive professionals, you spend a lot of time underwater and understand the importance of informing about marine debris.
Don’t just collect the marine debris you find while guiding fun divers. Bring it back to the dive shop, sort it and submit your data. By acting as regular citizen scientists, you are setting an example for divers around you and paving the way for the protections our ocean and its inhabitants need.
Become an AWARE Instructor
By promoting the AWARE Specialties with your divers and teaching them alongside your Open Water and Advanced Open Water Courses, you are growing the global network of divers taking direct action to save the ocean.
The more divers who understand marine ecosystems, how to protect the ocean and safely and appropriately remove debris from the marine environment and submit it to the global database, the better.
Lead a Fundraising Event
When you use the influence of your dive shop to raise funds for AWARE, you take the future of our ocean into your own hands and create a genuine atmosphere of conservation at your shop that divers will be drawn to. The opportunities to raise funds are vast, and do not have to be complicated.
Think BBQs, documentary nights or competitions to guess the number of marine debris items in a bottle. Ask participants to donate to be part of the event, and let them know that all funds raised go to PADI AWARE. Ask your eco-minded staff to brainstorm innovative ideas and empower them to lead the effort!
Become 100% AWARE
100% AWARE is a partner giving program available to all PADI Dive Centers, Resorts and Professionals to facilitate conservation support through the PADI certification card process.
Join the 100% AWARE Community and protect the blue planet with every certification you issue.
Share Your Story
The PADI AWARE community choose to be ocean optimists. Together, our actions – big or small – can and do inspire and empower others all over the globe to join our mission to save the ocean.
Tag @padi and @padiaware on your social media stories and posts and use the following hashtag to tell us your AWARE week stories and be featured in our social media posts and celebratory photo albums!
#AWAREWeek #SaveTheOcean #AWAREImpact #DiveAgainstDebris #PADIAWARE #LocalActionGlobalImpact #EveryDiveaSurveyDive
Host an AWARE Week Event
Add your conservation courses and activities to the Conservation Activities Locator for divers to find and book!
Virtual Events
Whatever your circumstances, join us online for a week’s worth of inspiring, educational and useful talks to help you make a greater positive impact on our shared ocean.
MONDAY 20TH
Integrating AWARE Specialties Webinar
A short masterclass on integrating AWARE Specialties to your standard Open Water and Advanced Open Water Courses, and why it matters. Registration link coming soon.
TUESDAY 21ST
AWARE Fundraising Tales
Hear from four experienced AWARE Fundraisers, hear their stories and get advice from the experts on organizing your own events. Head to PADI’s Facebook Channel to watch.
THURSDAY 23RD
Make Your Clean Ups Count: How To Submit Your Data
PADI AWARE Staff will step you through the process for submitting your data, and answer any questions about the quality review process. Registration link coming soon.
THURSDAY 23RD
Why Does Your Data Matter?
Join Ian Campbell, PADI AWARE Foundation’s Associate Director of Policy & Campaigns for a short discussion on why your data matters. Head to PADI’s Facebook Channel to watch.
FRIDAY 24TH
100% AWARE Q&A Webinar
Get answers to your questions about the 100% AWARE re-launch and what it means for you. Registration link coming soon.
FRIDAY 24TH
100% AWARE Partner Panel
Join four 100% AWARE PADI Dive Centers, Resorts and Professionals as they share their motivations for becoming 100% AWARE and what it means to dive and train with a 100% AWARE Partner. Head to PADI’s Facebook Channel to watch.
SATURDAY 25TH
Spreading Hope & Ocean Optimism
Join a panel of AmbassaDivers as they discuss what it means to be an Ocean Optimist, and the actions they take to foster conservation spirit within their communities. Head to PADI’s Facebook Channel to watch.
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