The PADI Ocean Torchbearer neighborhood is a rising world motion of on a regular basis people—divers, PADI® Professionals, conservation allies, and advocates—devoted to defending the locations they love. United by a perception within the energy of particular person actions to drive significant change, this passionate community of ocean champions has made important strides in 2024 towards a more healthy, extra resilient ocean. Guided by the PADI Pillars of Change, the Ocean Torchbearer neighborhood represents what’s potential when dedicated individuals unite to guard what issues.
This yr, from addressing the ocean’s most urgent threats to selecting eco-conscious dive operators and creating transformative experiences underwater, the neighborhood has delivered impactful wins for the ocean and coastal communities worldwide. Right here’s a have a look at the accomplishments that made waves in 2024—proof that the tide is really handing over favor of our blue planet.
Ocean Conservation
Empower our neighborhood to take native motion for world affect.
PADI’s first Pillar of Change, Ocean Conservation, displays each the group’s long-standing ethos to guard the aquatic setting and the renewed dedication to take targeted motion that results in lasting optimistic change for the ocean. By empowering tens of millions of divers all over the world with the power to take targeted conservation motion, we consider that change is feasible.
The worldwide PADI neighborhood has mobilized to fund important ocean conservation tasks all over the world. With the beneficiant assist of Blancpain, Freshfield, and people worldwide, PADI AWARE Group Grantees are making a tangible affect on ocean well being, from large-scale marine particles removing efforts and analysis to guard weak species to revolutionary packages that monitor coral well being and create marine protected areas. Get to know the 2024 PADI AWARE Group Grantees right here.
You’ll be able to assist PADI AWARE assist ocean heroes. Be part of us to boost $100,000 USD in 100 days for PADI AWARE’s Group Grant Program to double the variety of grantees that obtain funding. Your donation will straight fund important ocean conservation initiatives which are driving actual affect the place it’s wanted most.
Surveying Coral Bleaching with Undertake the Blue
In collaboration with NOAA, PADI AWARE Basis spearheaded essential coral bleaching survey tasks in each the Caribbean and Asia Pacific amid the fourth world coral bleaching occasion. By PADI AWARE’s Undertake the Blue™ program, this data-driven initiative tapped into the eagerness and experience of PADI Dive Facilities and Professionals to observe coral bleaching and contribute to scientific analysis in areas at excessive danger of coral loss. With the assist of Blancpain, founding associate of the PADI MPA Program and Undertake the Blue, these findings will inform future conservation methods, serving to defend these important ecosystems from additional harm.
Influencing International Plastics Coverage
PADI AWARE Basis actively participated at each step of the International Plastic Treaty growth because it was debated by governments, aiming to scale back marine plastic air pollution. PADI AWARE’s advocacy efforts as the one group representing the worldwide dive neighborhood make sure that divers’ voices are heard on the highest ranges, pushing for robust, enforceable measures to guard marine ecosystems from plastic waste. Greater than 10,000 members of the Ocean Torchbearer neighborhood rallied collectively by PADI’s world petition to assist PADI AWARE in negotiations for a robust International Plastics Treaty.
Defending Endangered Species with Re:Wild
PADI AWARE’s collaboration with Re:Wild is furthering efforts to guard endangered marine species. In October 2024, the organizations introduced their collaboration for the Seek for Misplaced Species mission, which goals to find and defend species considered extinct or critically endangered. The Seek for Misplaced Species will tie into the PADI AWARE International Shark and Ray Census, set to launch in 2025 with the assist of Blancpain, which can present important insights into the inhabitants standing of those very important ocean animals.
Advocating for Sharks and Rays within the Maldives
In a significant victory for marine life, the Maldivian authorities determined to not resume longline fishing, which poses a big menace to sharks and rays. This victory was influenced by a letter despatched by PADI and PADI AWARE Basis® on behalf of the worldwide dive neighborhood advocating for sustainable fisheries. This resolution not solely protects weak species but additionally helps the native dive financial system. It’s a robust reminder of how our collective voices, as divers and Ocean Torchbearers, can drive significant change.
Creating Future Ocean Guardians for Marine Safety in Barbados
Barbados has dedicated to assist defend as much as 30 % of its marine ecosystems. PADI AWARE is collaborating with authorities officers and native dive facilities to supply real-time information to tell coverage and safety measures in important marine areas. The subsequent technology of divers and swimmers are finest positioned to observe and restore the marine parks. Bodily experiencing the marine setting at a younger age is the primary important step to marine safety. To deal with this want in Barbados, PADI AWARE labored with native communities to establish future ocean guardians and assist practice the following technology of divers.
Along with the neighborhood in Barbados, we have now:
- Taught 325 youngsters to swim
- Educated six teenagers in conservation diving
- Led workshops with authorities, dive facilities and neighborhood leaders to find out marine conservation wants and options
- Adopted 37 websites and tracked marine particles, coral bleaching and habitat loss
- Assisted the dive sector to establish industrial fish important habitats in an effort to assess the potential for Fish Restoration Zone MPAs to be designated in coastal waters.
Becoming a member of Forces to Assist Rid the Ocean of Marine Particles Throughout AWARE Week
PADI, PADI AWARE Basis, and the worldwide dive neighborhood joined collectively for the seventh Annual AWARE Week in September 2024 to sort out the marine particles disaster. Folks throughout the globe signed the petition to assist the PADI AWARE coverage crew in calling for a robust International Plastics Treaty, participated in Dive In opposition to Particles® surveys and programs, and joined conservation actions worldwide. Greater than 1,750 contributors contributed to over 300 Dive In opposition to Particles surveys all through the week, eradicating and reporting 23,691 items of marine particles and aiding 385 entangled marine animals. With the assist of Seiko, official associate of PADI and PADI AWARE Basis’s Marine Particles Program, PADI AWARE and PADI regional groups hosted 21 Dive In opposition to Particles occasions with PADI Dive Facilities and Resorts in seven nations all through the week. Within the months main as much as AWARE Week, PADI enacted a brand new coverage to empower all PADI Professionals with a PADI Assistant Teacher score and better to be mechanically eligible to show the Dive In opposition to Particles specialty course – and so they actually answered the decision with 48 % year-over-year development within the variety of PADI Professionals instructing Dive In opposition to Particles programs.
Dive Trade Sustainability
Cut back the worldwide environmental footprint of the dive business.
PADI’s second Pillar of Change, Dive Trade Sustainability, was created to leverage PADI’s world affect as a method to encourage all key stakeholders throughout the dive business to take actions that scale back environmental affect and enhance the status of diving as a regenerative exercise with optimistic advantages for individuals and planet.
Eco Diving with PADI Eco Facilities on the Rise
2024 has been a banner yr for eco-friendly journey, and PADI Eco Facilities have been on the forefront. Named a high journey development by Conde Nast Traveller, eco diving – “divers selecting their journey locations primarily based on the sustainability of the scuba facilities, and having a extra optimistic and regenerative affect on the ocean as soon as there” – is on the rise due to PADI Eco Facilities which are setting a brand new customary for sustainable tourism. These dive facilities usually are not solely minimizing their environmental footprint but additionally educating divers and vacationers about marine conservation, fostering a world motion of eco-conscious explorers.
Recognizing Innovation in Sustainable Journey
PADI’s environmental dedication earned it a spot on Quick Firm’s checklist of the Most Revolutionary Corporations of 2024. This recognition is a testomony to the affect that PADI Eco Facilities and different sustainability initiatives have had in advancing eco-friendly practices within the dive business, and journey typically. This affect is clear by evaluation of the data submitted to Inexperienced Fins by PADI Eco Facilities. JJ Harvey, Operations Director at The Reef-World Basis (Inexperienced Fins worldwide coordinator), defined, “Primarily based on the data PADI Members have shared with us through the Inexperienced Fins Hub, there was a 26% enchancment of their scores.” By prioritizing sustainability, PADI is making certain that future generations can have the chance to expertise and defend the ocean.
Folks and Humanity
Foster variety and inclusion and assist native dive communities.
PADI’s third Pillar of Change, Folks and Humanity, is borne from PADI’s core perception that aquatic environments ought to be accessible to all. As a world group, we regularly try to foster an setting of openness throughout the dive business with a shared understanding that ‘underwater all of us converse the identical language.’
Breaking Down Gender Obstacles with the tenth Annual PADI Ladies’s Dive Day
The tenth Annual PADI Ladies’s Dive Day in July 2024 was a celebration of feminine divers and their contributions to diving and the worldwide neighborhood of Ocean Torchbearers. Over the previous decade, PADI Ladies’s Dive Day has grown into probably the most celebrated day of diving on the planet, remodeling lives and opening the door to the underwater world. Ladies’s Dive Day has been a catalyst for the dive neighborhood to interrupt down boundaries and empower divers of all genders, ages, races, backgrounds, and talents to discover and defend the ocean. This yr’s occasion noticed phenomenal participation, with hundreds of ladies coming collectively to dive, empower each other, and champion accessibility of the ocean. The occasion emphasised the significance of gender variety in diving and celebrated alternatives for feminine management. For the reason that launch of PADI Ladies’s Dive Day a decade in the past, the gender hole in diving has been decreased by almost 5 %, with girls now accounting for about 40 % of all leisure degree certifications worldwide.
Empowering Divers of All Skills In the course of the Inaugural PADI Adaptive Diving Week
PADI launched the first-ever PADI Adaptive Diving Week in December 2024 to have fun the tales of divers who’ve overcome challenges to discover the ocean and the devoted dive professionals who’re empowering all divers, fostering inclusivity, and increasing entry to the life-changing expertise of diving. Diving has lengthy been a transformative expertise, however for some, bodily or psychological boundaries have restricted entry. By elevating consciousness in regards to the therapeutic advantages of diving and increasing entry to dive coaching, experiences, and services, we are able to all assist make the ocean a really inclusive house.
Creating an Ever-Increasing Frontier of Ocean Accessibility and Wellness
PADI’s Adaptive Diving programs, Adaptive Companies Services, and provoking divers with disabilities gained widespread consideration this yr, with options within the Wall Avenue Journal, Time, The Guardian, and different distinguished media shops. The elevated visibility of diving with various talents has raised consciousness in regards to the significance of accessibility to the ocean, inspiring extra journey seekers and vacationers to seek out therapeutic, empowerment, and private development by diving. By partnerships just like the collaboration between PADI, PADI AWARE, and Neuro, we’ll proceed to work collectively to nurture a “blue mind-set” that advantages individuals and planet.
Trying Forward
2024 has been a yr of unbelievable progress in our shared mission to hunt journey and save the ocean. From advancing marine conservation by grassroots efforts and citizen science to fostering a extra sustainable and inclusive dive business, the achievements outlined above are only the start. As we transfer into 2025, we’ll proceed to construct on these wins, pushed by the unwavering dedication of the worldwide dive neighborhood to guard the ocean and one another. Be part of the neighborhood of Ocean Torchbearers to remain knowledgeable about how one can get entangled.
Collectively, our collective motion is driving significant change.
