Congratulations from Asia Pacific, Project Aware and Reef Check
Scuba Cat Diving received two prestigious awards in one evening.
Reef Check Thailand
and Asia Pacific & Project Aware
A huge THANK YOU to the Staff and Students from Concordia International School, Shanghai, China for their commitment to the Reefs of Racha Yai…..5 years later ……44 days, 60 students, 160 Dives
It all began 5 and a half years ago when we received an email from Terry Umphenour, a teacher from the International School in Shanghai. Terry wanted to start a Marine Ecology Study to enhance the education of students by bringing it outdoors.
Over the last 5 years the students have collected valuable data from their surveys, recording the many changes that occurred over a 5 year period and learned an important lesson: our reefs are in serious danger.
Many of them have started as non divers, going on to complete multiple Courses, infact during their time on board I think the diver education system has been fully utilized……
- Open Water Course
- Advanced Open Water Course
- Rescue Diver
- Master Scuba Diver
- Many different Specialities
- Dive Master training
and of course the ultimate Goal, Reef Check Divers and Instructors now able to identify different types of indicator species of invertebrates, substrates, and fish by name something taken for granted by most divers, with only a handful round the world being able to do this.
They learned how to dive safely and respectfully to their new environment realizing diving is not a game. They saw first hand the negative effect of human’s on coral reef systems.
This years students were :
- Danielle
- James
- Sydney
- Sara
- Emersyn
- Pan Ling
- Jie
- Jim
- Dana
- Haley
- Yaw Tung (Andy)
- Jing Xin (Jean)
It was an honor to meet you guys and again thank you Paul, Joel and Terry for making this all possible.
and not forgetting Suchana Apple Chanavich, Ph.D and her amazing commitment to the Reef System not only in Thailand but around the world (and the awesome Ice Cream Cake at the BBQ!)
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