PADI international reef clean up Pattaya Thailand scuba diving

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PADI International Reef Clean Up Day (Sept 17th) 2005

Interns PADI Reef Clean Up Sept 2005 Pattaya Thailand

September each year holds a special for PADI in the way that they hold their International Reef Clean-up day. This year was certainly special as it was the 20th anniversary of the international clean-up day.

Mermaid's holds unofficial clean ups throughout the year but this is the PADI special day - great new for coral reefs and beaches world wide.

This year we chose Koh Keung Badaan in Pattaya, Thailand to clean. This island is very pleasant indeed and great for open water training as fairly sheltered and not too deep (max depth 12 meters). We had a good amount of helpers on the boat and these were - Rich, Jay and Beau, Dao, SB1, Justin, Kevin, Angel, Bruce, Mark L (we have too many Marks!), Chris, Garry, Gazza, Alex, Jon, James, PJ, Michael, Phil and of course Sue that organized the day. Bob (from Bob's Burgers) was also a welcome addition with some great ribs and salad for lunch (This was the boss's idea to make us all energized in the afternoon).

The clean up is very basic in the way that we are just collecting waste from both the reef and also the beach. No matter where in the world you travel you will sadly always find waste on reefs as it travels around in the water. This can be from beer bottles to fishing nets and old shoes to batteries. We like to clean the beach of the islands that we clean the reefs of - rubbish often gets washed up on to the beach and to clean all makes a very thorough job. You have to be careful when collecting rubbish from the reef as if the rubbish has become part of the reef you will do more damage by removing it and the living organisms on it than you would if you left it. You have to decide carefully.

I have to take my hat of to all of the guys that attended today. We managed to fill 47 large industrial bin bags with rubbish that had been collected on the beach and around. A job very well done! Please do feel free to have a little look at the pictures of the day.


The guys getting in position on the boat ready for a briefing from Steve Blumenthal - the resident Course Director (Boss).	JJ and Mark ready for the dive...	Gazza and Phil making buddy checks. Gazza achieved a great double chin trying to get out of the shot! :-) Nice try Gaz.


Angel and Bruce - all buddy checked and ready for the cleanup.	As mentioned earlier - care must be taken as to what to bring up. This was a tiny Octopus in the mouth of a tin can.	Mark and friend scouring the area.


Bruce and Angel.	The local Thai help - Dao and JJ assisting with cutting nets from the coral.	Mark and JJ moving on to the next area. The bottom became quite stirred up by us all fishing for waste.


Bruce and Angel collecting a healthy amount.	Bruce.	Back at the boat it needs to be loaded.


Dao assisting with the beach clean up. We had an army of guys swimming to the beach using BCD's as floatation gathering bag after bag of rubbish.	Jon collecting the bags at the back of the boat.	We had to be careful bringing the bags back on to the boat as they were liable to split. In order to avoid collecting a bag of water we had to cut the bags - this caused additional care to be needed.


The local assistance - Dao and JJ.	Lunchtime!!!	During lunch we eat and relax...whilst others high dive from the boat. (Perfectly safe).


47 bags of rubbish in total - a superb day for the reef.	We were very lucky - I'd like to say that we arranged for the rubbish collector to be at the pier but it was just a coincidence :-)	From the beach and reef to the boat and then to the rubbish tip - where it should have been in the first place.

The Captain's Corner was the destination of the evening buffet and raffle. Sue (Miss National Geographic) organized a raffle with all of the proceeds going to the PADI Project Aware fund. Sue sold a lot of tickets for the prizes that Steve Blumenthal the boss at Mermaid's offered as prizes. The prizes ranged from a few drinks and food to superb fins and DVD's to backpacks.


We like to finish the day with a great buffet.	Justin collecting his prize from the raffle.	James another winner!


Jon collecting his winnings.	Phil with his Jet fin prize.	The guys that we have to thank - MANY THANKS INDEED (on behalf of the reef:-).