a SIGN of support
A round of applause to Big Blue for your support for sharks! We submitted 486 signatures to Project AWARE's Shout of for Sharks petition to persuade international organsations that control the shark fishing trade that we want these beautiful apex predators protected from destructive fishing practices driving them to extinction.
Project AWARE have now hit the 100k mark which is a incredible achievement and a clear message to policy makers. AWARE has been very successful in unifying our diving voice and representing the dive community at this high level. We’re so pleased to have you with us.
We recently just returned from a meeting with the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore to discuss shark protection through CITES. The meeting was very constructive and paves the way for future discussions. And we’re gearing up for more of these meetings over the coming months. It’s a critical time for shark conservation and we’re really making waves at this level.
If you would like to sign the petition, please email or post your signatures to us asap so we can record them. You can download a petition form and take it around to all your friends and family too. And if you love sharks as much as us, don't forget you can do an Shark Conservation speciality with us and join our annual Swim4Sharks event in August.
Big Blue stole the show!Big Blue participated in the 4th annual Save Koh Tao Festival again this year - and we were awesome! If you've seen the previous years shows when we rocked to Grease, then zombie strutted to Thriller, and last year we bounced along to Riverdance! Well, we couldn't let down our fans this year, and we showed the 10,000 people watching how we \ren't just amazing divers, but we can dance pretty well too! We stole the show with our Evolution of Dance performance - which included some pretty great Elvis moves, the chicken dance, a bit of break-dancing, and even a spot of line-dancing. Such a talented bunch we are. Stay tuned for the video - it's a given you'll start to dance along to it. The rest of the Save Koh Tao Festival was a great success, with turtle releases, giant clam relocations, beach and underwater clean ups, photo and film contests, lots of fundraising and even more eco-friendly awareness accomplishments. Thanks to everyone who took part in the dance and helped out at the marine conservation daytime events - we're one big green mean fighting machine!
All clams on board!Divers from Big Blue and New heaven joined forces to restore the giant clam population on Sairee Beach yesterday. Over the last year, we have been cultivating over 300 clams in a nursery off Aow Leuk bay, and yesterday we took 69 of them to their new home in Sairee! Clams are filter feeding invertebrates who keep our water quality nice and clean. Due to predation, pollution and people collecting them to use their shells for jewellery, ornaments and for the aquarium trade, our populations of clams on Sairee have depleted and need a little help. So, 25 divers from Big Blue and New Heaven came together to re-home some of the nursery clams. When clams reach over 15cm, they begin to put down a permanent "foot" using strong muscle fibres. We took clams from the nursery that were around 12-14 cm and relocated them to suitable areas on Sairee. Now they are settling into their new home, and we will keep a close watch on our new reef additions!
|
Happy Earth Day Everyone!Well I have to say, what a great success Earth Day was at Big Blue yesterday! Earth day is an annual event on April 22nd to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth's natural environment, and how we showed our appreciation! To start with, a dedicated bunch collected over 200 kgs of rubbish from Sairee beach, including a lot of chicken heads! Not what you want to be sunbathing next to i think! But no worries - we cleared them all up, the sand is polished and fish much happier. Then we headed out on a FREE dive to clear rubbish from under the sea - again, a great success collecting over 100 kgs of marine debris such as plastic bags which can kill marine life like turtles. Everyone had a great day helping out, and if you want to get involved, we do a Beach adn Underwater clean up on the last Saturday of each month, so come join in! But the fun didn't end there. Big Blue was joint by Crystal and Phoenix dive schools in a Beach Volleyball tournament, which raised over 1,500 baht for Shark conservation, including 96 signatures in support of shark protection. Phoenix Divers were the overall winners - beating every team they challenged! Well done Phoenix! Bad luck Big Blue, but at least we beat Crystal. After the Beach Volleyball, we all joint forces in the bar to show off our match scars and participate in the Earth Day Raffle. Aquamaster, Big Blue Conservation Big Blue Diving, Big Blue Tech, Higher Ground Bar and Phoenix divers all donated prizes , and we raised over 7000 baht to go towards providing materials for more people to organise beach and underwater clean ups around the world, helping to keep our oceans clean and healthy. A huge thanks to everyone who came along and supported the day - it was such a great success! Join us again next year! And Phoenix beware....we have already started practising...
No more fishing on Koh Tao!
Today was a good day in the fight for stopping illegal fishing. . .Yesterday the Fisheries Department found a non-local boat using cages to fish in the protected zone around Koh Tao, and arrested all 5 on board, including the captain. On board we found hundreds of fish, including; scribbled filefish, trigger fish, bat fish, big groupers, cobia, sweetlips, and of course tons of snapper, rabbit fish, and fusilers. they had also been collecting large cowrie shells. Today they made the captain return to the locations were his cages are placed (with the Marine police, the local government, and members of Save Koh Tao) to empty the cages. Rosemary Allen of FilmCo was there and got it all on tape, so stay tuned to see the video with interviews from the people involved. Great job Save Koh Tao! Glad to be working with you!
|
