The Center for Oceanic Awareness Research and Education is back at DEMA Show for their 15th year, receiving the DEMA Community Championship Award.
COARE won the Gold Prize for their Green Divers for Blue Oceans program and their international efforts to reduce plastics.
The Green Divers for Blue Oceans campaign provides guidelines to practice sustainability and be more environmentally responsible, according to COARE President Christopher Chin:
“Inherently, better oceans mean better diving which means better business.”
COARE has created recommendations for best practices to help divers and companies in the industry on all levels to do better when it comes to making choices. Anybody and everybody can benefit from this program. Sometimes the choices are not always obvious so these guidelines can enlighten and encourage responsibility. Sometimes it is a change in behavior, a better product, a better approach, or a change in philosophy. Chin advises:
“Mindfulness and making choices consciously. It’s almost impossible to avoid single-use plastics but we have to do our best and pay attention.”
In March of this year, at the U.N. Environmental Assembly, it was declared that there will be a treaty on plastic pollution. This will cover the whole lifecycle of plastic. While still in negotiation what this will look like, it is a huge win for dealing with plastic pollution problem.
For more information, visit coare.org.
