2012 has been a year full of challenges and hard work in terms of our commitment to protect and preserve the environment around us.
Downbelow is serious and passionate about the health of the marine life and it shows through the various activities that we have organized throughout this year.
Just like the years before, we continued with our regular beach clean-up events and also the removal of illegal fishing nets within the protected area of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park.
All visiting Gap Year plus School and University Groups to our PADI 5 Star Dive Centre, receive at least 1 day of conservation awareness activities as our resident PADI Course Director Richard Swann along with the team will not pass the chance to share the importance of marine conservation.
This has greatly helped with our AWARE shark petition signatures. So far we have gathered 1,685 signatures.
Our continued efforts this year culminated with Downbelow successfully hosting at our dive centre the Project Aware Finathon, a 1 KM swim to raise awareness on the unsustainable practice of shark finning.
Downbelows Finaton was the first Finathon held in Kota Kinabalu and also Asia. Downbelow received a letter of support from Datuk Masidi Manjun, Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture.
From this event alone, we managed to raise more than RM15,000.00 for Project Aware which is equivalent to USD 5,000 in today’s exchange rate. Much needed funds help fight for legislation to control shark finning.
In December 2012, our effort has been recognized by the Project AWARE Foundation as Downbelow was chosen as a Featured Member. With this recognition, our efforts are highlighted on the Project AWARE’s website to divers across the world.
We are happy and proud to receive this honour however the work is not done yet. We will continue with our effort and hopefully, many more will join in the fight for the environment.
You can see the pictures from our event on our Project AWARE Clean-Ups Gallery page.
Do contact us and find out how you can help make a difference in the world. We have so much planned for 2013 !
