Downbelow Marine & Wildlife Adventures inspires community to clean up local waters for International Cleanup Day

In a bid to improve the health of underwater eco systems Downbelow Marine & Wildlife Adventures rallied 50 volunteers to clean up their base station and House Reef on Gaya Island including the ocean, beaches, mangrove area and rain-forest trails to help make clean waters a reality.

The cleanup event was spearheaded by Project AWARE Foundation who coordinate the global volunteer effort devoted to cleaner, healthier oceans. Every year seven million tonnes of rubbish enters the world’s oceans. Marine debris kills more than one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles each year.

“Dive Centres like Downbelow Marine & Wildlife Adventures are instrumental in the global fight to wipe out marine debris. We could not make a difference without their support,” said Mike Holme, Executive Director of Project AWARE. “Project AWARE thanks Downbelow Marine & Wildlife Adventures and all the local volunteers for their commitment to marine conservation. Local clean ups are a fantastic example of how people can work together to take action and make a positive contribution to the local community.”

The management of Downbelow said “Thanks to the commitment of passionate local divers and volunteers we have made a real impact cleaning up the local area. It is amazing what can be achieved and we’d like to thank Sabah Tourism Staff, holiday makers from London and Germany, Scubazoo Staff, KK Dive Club Members, Sabah Park Staff, Local Travel Agents, Family Volunteers and Local School Children for their efforts. In total we removed 403kgs of rubbish from the area”

We have submitted data from the event to Project Aware. With so many volunteers diving for debris and collecting vital information on different types of materials entering aquatic environments, International Cleanup Day is the most effective event of its kind. Project AWARE submits all the data collected to the Ocean Conservancy. The data becomes a powerful tool that is used to inform the public, governments and businesses of the damaging effects of debris.

This clean up day has made such a great difference to our local area we will be running these volunteer days regularly and will post all such events.

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TEL: +6 012 866 1935
www.divedownbelow.com