Ten Women – One Sea Goddess – 3000 Kilometres – 100 Days – One Vision – One World Record.

With Women’s Dive Day just gone, I wanted to find women making an impact in the world of scuba. I found the Sedna Dive Team and their Epic Expedition.

“Women Wanted: For hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long days of complete sunlight, constant danger, safe return hopeful, honour and recognition in case of success.”

They are a bunch of truly gutsy women! Lead by expedition founder Susan R Eaton, in the northern summer of 2016 they plan on snorkeling the Northwest Passage to bring attention to the disappearing Arctic Sea Ice and the impact this is having on the aboriginal people’s way of life. This will be a 3000km, 100 day trip from Pond Inlet on Baffin Island, through the treacherous Northern Passage, to Nunavut in Canada’s Northern Territories.

Dividing into two made for TV teams – Team Beluga and Team Narwhal, each member will take to the waters prepared to face challenges such as stinging jellyfish, tusked walrus, polar bears, and pods of orcas, not to mention icebergs, gale force winds, and maybe the toughest of all: -2° waters. The women will be taking turns in the water, using special drysuits with heating undersuits and mitts. Rather than swimming, each snorkeler will use a scooter or diver propulsion vehicle which can travel between 3 – 5km/h and the plan is to continue the relay non-stop as long as they have sunlight.

Hopefully these challenges will translate into a 10 part television series showing the lead up period and all the preparations required and then into the relay itself.

The team is made up of geologists, biologists, oceanographers, award winning videographers, environmental lawyers and much more – all with a passion to make a difference. They see the expedition as a ‘Call to Action’, a chance to provide aboriginal and scientific knowledge to public and governments on impending issue of global warming and its impact of the Arctic’s fragile ecosystem.

Their expedition boat will double as a portable aquarium, while the women are snorkeling they hope to collect small animals, seaweeds, invertebrates and other sea life to display to the local people at each stop before returning their finding back to the sea.

Following the relay, Team Sedna plan on translating its findings into education and awareness programs for the Inuit and Inuvialuit people situated along the northern passage. Team Sedna will aim to serve as role models and hope to inspire Inuit girls and young women they meet along the way to think ‘big’ and follow their dreams.

To get a glimpse at how incredible these women really are, watch this video!

71% of our planet’s surface is covered in water. Oceans, lakes, rivers, ice caps, glaciers… It is essential to our existence, yet along with our forests, we are progressively – but faster than you think – destroying it. Our sources of survival, and we are the ones ruining them, depriving ourselves.

It isn’t your problem? Think again.

You may not use plastic bags, all your Tupperware is BPA free, and you always, ALWAYS recycle. You have no impact on the ocean’s pollution, and it has no impact on you. Wrong.One cannot simply be impartial to something as vital as the Earth’s waterways. We all play a role in the cycle of life, and we can all play the ‘good guy’. All it takes is knowledge and understanding.

Countries and supermarkets that have banned or started charging for plastic bags is a great start, we should all be aware of the evil doings of the plastic carrier bag. If you are unsure how they are affecting the environment, here are some quick stats:

• A plastic bag gets used, on average, for a mere 12 minutes
• Plastic bags are in the top 12 items most commonly found on coastal clean-ups
• On average, we only recycle one in every 200 plastic bags we use

You can read more, here.

If that means nothing to you, try this:

Turtles easily mistake plastic bags for jellyfish.

In nature, it is almost impossible for turtles (and other animals – not just marine creatures) to differentiate between these carrier bags and their food source, notable jellyfish for turtles.

There are elements that contribute to the plastic pollution that we are well aware of. This is great; awareness leads to prevention, which in turn produces results. However there are factors that are much less known, yet as harmful to the world that surrounds us.

I am talking about microbeads; minuscule balls of plastic used in countless products, distributed worldwide daily. They are used in cosmetics and personal care products of all kinds: scrubs, lotions, soap, shower gel, even toothpaste! They are commonly added as an exfoliating agent, as a binding component to provide smoothness and a silky texture, or to aid ‘spreadability’. In certain products, coloured microbeads are added for no other reason than for aesthetic appeal. You may not even know you are using them as they are so tiny, generally ranging in size from 10 micrometres to 1mm (but in cases up to 5mm in diameter).

 So how are these ‘microbeads’ affecting the environment?

These little spheres are effectively tiny pieces of plastic. They are designed to wash easily away down the drain – out of sight, out of mind, right? They are then so small that they pass through the filtration system in the water treatment plants, washing out into our waterways. Microbeads, despite their size, make up a large portion of the infamous Plastic Soup. They absorb pollutants such as pesticides, oil, industrial chemicals etc… meaning that a single microbead can be more toxic than the water around it. This pollution then moves up the food chain when toxic-coated microbeads are consumed by fish and other marine life. Often, these fish will then enter our food chain which results in us consuming the plastic particles and the toxins. We don’t want to eat plastic, well neither do these animals!

How can you avoid using microbeads?

One of the biggest issues with microbeads is identifying them in the first place. You may not wish to be using them, but they might be sneaking into your products unnoticed. We simply do not always know what we are looking for. If that face scrub or moisturiser you are about to buy lists its ingredients, then take a peek down the list. If you see polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate, or polymethyl methacrylate then pop it back on the shelf. More and more brands are being pushed (more or less willingly) into using natural exfoliants, of which there are a multitude. These include coconut husks, apricot shells, pumice… look out for products using these as an eco-friendly alternative! Several countries have already signed bills to ban or in the very least phase out microbeads entirely. By switching to a bio-degradable alternative, you are helping protect our oceans and waterways. To help you identify the good brands and products from the bad, visit the Beat the Microbead website.

What else can you do to help?

Sometimes the smallest actions mean the most. These days, too many people take the ‘I’m just one person, I can’t change anything’ approach. The truth is, if we change that mentality and all play a small part, we can make big changes.

Here are some simple steps you can take to help reduce plastic pollution:

• Substitute plastic carrier bags for reusable ones
• Carry a reusable water canteen and coffee cup – skip takeout coffee cups by providing your own
• Say no to straws!
• Avoid disposable plastic cutlery
• Use BPA free, reusable containers to store your leftovers
• Recycle and compost as much as you can

As divers, we are more aware of the underwater world and what is going on beneath the waves. We need to become ambassadors for the oceans!

Tell us how you help reduce plastic pollution. What steps do you think we should all be taking to stop the plastic panic!

With just over a week to go, I am getting increasingly excited about the release of Pixar’s new film, Finding Dory. After marveling at the accuracy when portraying the underwater world in Finding Nemo, I look forward to seeing what new levels Pixar will go to in their most recent masterpiece.

Following the story of Dory – a forgetful regal blue tang – as she sets off in search of her long lost family, viewers will be introduced to an array of lovable marine characters. Divers, you can practice your fish ID skills as the plot unravels, thanks to the attention to detail Pixar invest in each and every one of their films. Meanwhile, marine biologists worldwide rejoice, pleased by the conservation message that the original film and its sequel aim to instill in the viewer. However, the good intentions backfired massively, as we witnessed after the release of Finding Nemo in 2003.

Regal Blue Tangs like Dory cannot be bred in captivity

Internationally, people followed the story of the poor little anemone clownfish Nemo, as he was abducted from his home and taken to live behind glass (by P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney – no less!) His loving, yet slightly overprotective father frantically searches for his lost son, while Nemo plots ways to escape his captor.

The message is clear – Fish should not be taken from the oceans, put into tanks, and left on display because you think they look pretty! That is a big NO-NO. Yet somehow, people suddenly rushed to pet shops and aquariums looking for a nemo of their very own. Clownfish sales went up as much as 40% in some places, breeders struggling to meet the sudden increase in demand. Fortunately for the world’s anemone clownfish population, our little orange and white striped friends are reasonably easy to breed in captivity. This phenomenon lead to the creation of the Saving Nemo foundation, who look to educate the masses on the truth behind having an aquarium at home. What many fail to realise is that 90% of all fish in captivity were taken directly from their homes in the ocean. This is leading to a decrease in the population of fish such as clownfish in the wild, meaning some species will eventually face extinction.

Clownfish are happiest in their natural habitat!

This issue comes into play with the release of the sequel. Will sales of blue tangs boom in the same way clownfish sales did in 2003? Unlike Nemo, Dory cannot be bred in captivity, although research is being carried out, marine biologists have yet to discover a way to breed our favourite character. If you see a blue tang in captivity, it will have come from the wild. It is estimated that a whopping 400,000 regal blue tangs are collected from their natural habitat every year, if demand increases, so will that number. Here’s hoping that Pixar get their message on conservation across loud and clear with this new film! If you are taking your little ones to see Finding Dory next week, make sure they understand the importance of fishes staying in their natural habitat!

A much better way to experience the whole cast of Finding Nemo, is to visit them personally! Witnessing marine life in its natural habitat is a great reason to learn to dive. Many of the protagonists can be found in Fiji, join us there in August! Come and talk to us to find out more! We can also tell you all about project AWARE, and how to get involved saving our oceans!