“More than 250 million tons of plastic are estimated to make its way into our ocean by 2025.” - PADI AWARE

PADI’s Dive Against Debris initiative is the world's largest citizen science movement to rid the ocean of marine debris. Since its launch in 2011 more than 2.4 million pieces of debris have been removed from our oceans and reported, through the Adopt The Blue program, into PADI AWAREs citizen science database - data that is used to inform groundbreaking research for a healthier ocean and to change government level policies globally. With over 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris already in our ocean, these changes need to happen now.

At Aqua Dive we have 5 Adopt The Blue sites which we clean on a regular basis to ensure healthy and productive reefs, free from plastic pollution.

Our current mission:

We have actively been doing clean up dives at Aqua Dive since the start, but in November 2024 we ventured out to a rarely-visited coral patch on our house reef and were shocked by what we found. Since then we have made it our mission to clean up this section of the reef. Currently we have taken over 690kg of trash out of this ~500m² reef patch and more from other areas of our house reef. If you want to keep updated on our progress, we post all updates here and on our instagram each week.

Clean Up Dives: 36

Debris Weight Removed: 1,100.5 kg

Pieces of Debris Removed: 13,652

How we do it:

Partnering with Atoll Marine Centre and Atoll Volunteers, we run our Dive Against Debris events every Friday afternoon, inviting our wonderful volunteers and visitors to the island to join.

Each week we remove between 30 and 50 kilograms of rubbish out of our ocean and after a few trials we have found that using a lift bag in neutral buoyancy and swimming with it underwater is the easiest way. Luckily our staff and partners are now experts at using a lift bag, making our removals so much easier!

22 November 2024:

Participants: 7

Location: Naifaru House Reef East

Weight: 19.5kg

Pieces of Debris: 247

Most Unusual Item Found: Men’s Underwear

29 November 2024:

Participants: 3

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 43.4kg

Pieces of Debris: 860

Most Unusual Item Found: Women’s Underwear

6 December 2024:

Participants: 4

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 44.4kg

Pieces of Debris: 749

Most Unusual Item Found: Oil Filter

13 December 2024:

Participants: 2

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 51.4kg

Pieces of Debris: 512

Most Unusual Item Found:

20 December 2024:

Participants: 4

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 32.2kg

Pieces of Debris: 356

Most Unusual Item Found: VHS Tape

27 December 2024:

Participants: 4

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 50.9kg

Pieces of Debris: 539

Most Unusual Item Found: Pencil Case

3 January 2025:

Participants: 4

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 46.7kg

Pieces of Debris: 589

Most Unusual Item Found: IV Drip Bag

17 January 2025:

Participants: 4

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 31.6kg

Pieces of Debris: 404

Most Unusual Item Found: Playing Card

24 January 2025:

Participants: 5

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 33.2kg

Pieces of Debris: 675

Most Unusual Item Found: Faucet

30 January 2025:

Participants: 5

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 38.3kg

Pieces of Debris: 587

Most Unusual Item Found: VCR Tape

7 February 2025:

Participants: 5

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 31.7kg

Pieces of Debris: 524

Most Unusual Item Found: Baby Bottle Nipple

14 February 2025:

Participants: 4

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 42.0kg

Pieces of Debris: 540

Most Unusual Item Found: Lego Brick

22 February 2025:

Participants: 6

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 36.8kg

Pieces of Debris: 846

Most Unusual Item Found: Football

28 February 2025:

Participants: 2

Location: Naifaru House Reef West

Weight: 28.9kg

Pieces of Debris: 139

Most Unusual Item Found: Lawn Chair

8 March 2025:

Participants: 3

Location: Naifaru House Reef West

Weight: 36.8kg

Pieces of Debris: 692

Most Unusual Item Found: Fridge Parts

14 March 2025:

Participants: 2

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 25.7kg

Pieces of Debris: 232

Most Unusual Item Found: Toothpaste

20 March 2025:

Participants: 3

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 27.4kg

Pieces of Debris: 244

Most Unusual Item Found: Umberella

11 April 2025:

Participants: 4

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 30.6kg

Pieces of Debris: 686

Most Unusual Item Found: VHS Tapes

25 April 2025:

Participants: 2

Location: Naifaru House Reef East

Weight: 47.3kg

Pieces of Debris: 356

Most Unusual Item Found: Plastic Clock

23 May 2025:

Participants: 4

Location: Naifaru House Reef East

Weight: 21.3kg

Pieces of Debris: 154

Most Unusual Item Found: Plastic Toys

30 May 2025:

Participants: 4

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 20.6kg

Pieces of Debris: 273

Most Unusual Item Found: Plastic TV Surround

13 June 2025:

Participants: 6

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 17.5kg

Pieces of Debris: 290

Most Unusual Item Found:

22 June 2025:

Participants: 4

Location: Naifaru Coral Strip

Weight: 33.8kg

Pieces of Debris: 260

Most Unusual Item Found: Padlock

25 June 2025:

Participants: 3

Location: Naifaru Coral Strip

Weight: 18.5kg

Pieces of Debris: 166

Most Unusual Item Found: Child’s Shoe

27 June 2025:

Participants: 5

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 23.1kg

Pieces of Debris: 392

Most Unusual Item Found: Plastic Miniature Football

30 June 2025:

Participants: 4

Location: Naifaru Coral Strip

Weight: 34.2kg

Pieces of Debris: 208

Most Unusual Item Found: Kid’s Toys

4 July 2025:

Participants: 2

Location: Naifaru Coral Strip

Weight: 25.7kg

Pieces of Debris: 51

Most Unusual Item Found: Machete

6 July 2025:

Participants: 2

Location: Naifaru Coral Strip

Weight: 25.9kg

Pieces of Debris: 154

Most Unusual Item Found: Engine Filters

16 July 2025:

Participants: 3

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 18.6kg

Pieces of Debris: 173

Most Unusual Item Found:

25 July 2025:

Participants: 6

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 13.9kg

Pieces of Debris: 262

Most Unusual Item Found:

1 August 2025:

Participants: 2

Location: Naifaru Coral Strip

Weight: 23.6kg

Pieces of Debris: 150

Most Unusual Item Found: Mens Underwear

4 August 2025:

Participants: 5

Location: Naifaru Coral Strip

Weight: 52.6kg

Pieces of Debris: 194

Most Unusual Item Found: More Mens Underwear

16 August 2025:

Participants: 2

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 18.9kg

Pieces of Debris: 279

Most Unusual Item Found: Womens Underwear

20 August 2025:

Participants: 2

Location: Naifaru Reef Patch

Weight: 12.4kg

Pieces of Debris: 286

Most Unusual Item Found: Credit Card

22 August 2025:

Participants: 4

Location: Naifaru Coral Strip

Weight: 17.9kg

Pieces of Debris: 233

Most Unusual Item Found: Washing Machine Front

31 August 2025:

Participants: 2

Location: Naifaru Coral Strip

Weight: 21.4kg

Pieces of Debris: 185

Most Unusual Item Found: Bucket