PHILIPSBURG:--- Last week Sunday 26 June, the first group of the SXM Coastal CleanUp project did their final dives and exam and are now certified as PADI Open Water divers.
This PADI Open Water Certification teaches you to dive to depths of up to 18 m/ 60 feet. After a day of theory, Open Water students get to learn and practice dive skills in the pool before heading out into confined waters for their first ocean dives in Little Bay.
After that, they proceed to dive at other sites, in this case, the students were able to see the old Simpson Bay bridge which lies together with the hurricane Irma damaged boat JabJab that was laid to rest by Kidz at Sea, and the St Maarten Nature Foundation, to become a dive site after being salvaged from the lagoon where she originally sank during the hurricane.
The project's target group is young St Maarteners between the age of 18 and 34 who are interested in cleaning up the coastal waters of St Maarten of both Irma debris as well as everyday human pollution such as single-use plastics, bottles, and cans that either blow into the water or end up there via drainage ditches. Once their SCUBA training is complete the participants will then be able to volunteer in underwater clean-up dives.
Group 2 will start their training in mid-July. Upon completion of this course, some of the two groups will be selected to continue SCUBA training with the Advanced Open Water Certification, as well as follow-up courses Search & Recovery and the Divers Against Debris training.
All updates on the training and also opportunities to participate in one-day ‘Discover Scuba’ try dive events are posted on their social media pages under Kidz at Sea and SXM Coastal CleanUp.
This project is/has been funded by the Government of the Netherlands under Sint Maarten Trust Fund, implemented by Resources for Community Resilience (R4CR), administered by VNGI, and overseen by The World Bank.
