Strategic Partner:

CLEANUP ARABIA 2023

EAST COAST UNDERWATER DIVE CLEAN-UPS & BEACH CLEAN-UP 

WHEN: Saturday 11th November 2023
WHERE: Dibba, Fujairah – Divers will be told which Dive Centre they are registered with, and non-divers will be given the beach location.
TIME: 8:30am-3pm
PROVIDED: Tank and weights are included for divers. All other diving equipment required, must be rented by the diver with the dive centre you are registered with for the clean-up.
RULES: Must be an EDA Member and registered to attend.
BRING: Your refillable water bottles, plastic water bottles will not be available.

 

DIVERS’ SCHEDULE
8:30 – Divers arrive & register at their designated dive centre in Dibba, Fujairah.
8:45 – Equipment set-up and dive briefing.
9:00 – Boats head out to their designated dive sites.
10:30 – Dives End; divers dismantle equipment and return tanks and weights back to respected dive centres.
11:30 – Rubbish counting and weighing begins to fill out the ICC forms.
12:30 – Everyone heads to the Radisson Blu for the lunch and presentations.
13:00 – Lunch Buffet open.
14:00 – Presentations and Group Photos.

 

BEACH PARTICIPANTS’ SCHEDULE
8:30 – Participants arrive at designated beach for briefing, and collect bags and gloves.
9:00 – Start the clean-up.
11:30 – Teams work together to fill in ICC card information on overall litter collected (all litter is piled onto tarpaulin mat for counting, and final bags are weighed).
12:30 – Everyone heads to the Radisson Blu for the lunch and presentations.
13:00 – Lunch Buffet open.
14:00 – Presentations and Group Photos.

 

*If you take photos, please share them with us for the upcoming December magazine issue and our social media platforms. Email them to magazine@emiratesdiving.com as high resolution jpegs so we can cover all participation with all the clean-up results.

 

CLEANUP ARABIA’S STORY

Emirates Diving Association (EDA) has been running Cleanup Arabia since its inception in 1995, a voluntary campaign that annually cleans-up the UAE’s dive sites and beaches with EDA Members and Partners working together, side by side. Cleanup Arabia is part of the Clean Up The World Programme that is promoted and managed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the International Coastal Cleanup by the Ocean Conservancy which is our data submission platform.

The campaign is made up of EDA members and stakeholders that participate in dive site and beach clean-ups which help shape their consciousness concerning marine debris and saying no to single-use plastics. Inspiring change to make a difference together!

FACTS

  • Marine litter is a problem for everyone! It affects us all, not just the coastal communities. We need to all take part and fix the problem together.
  • Marine litter poses threats not only to the marine environment, but to human health, to the appearance of the coast, and to tourism.
  • Plastic typically constitutes around 75% of all marine litter, and it is regarded as one of the most problematic materials because of its abundance, longevity, and the fact that larger plastics break down into ever smaller parts termed ‘microplastics’.
  • Our ultimate goal as a people, is to prevent more litter from reaching the marine environment in the first place. We need to reduce, reuse and recycle when possible, and ban “Biodegradable” products.
  • Biodegradable plastic, as defined in most of the world, requires specific conditions such as heat and soil-dwelling microbes and bacteria to fully biodegrade. Such conditions do not exist in many ocean environments, and therefore plastic that might otherwise be biodegradable in industrial composters, does not biodegrade once it enters the marine environment.
  • EDA has reported-to-date, 56,539.15kg of marine litter collected by EDA Members & Partners through Cleanup Arabia since 1995.

REGISTER BY EMAIL TO LAYLA AT: projects@emiratesdiving.com

Please provide us with the following information to register your place at Cleanup Arabia 2023:

  1. Your Name and valid EDA Membership Number:
    (to renew or acquire membership, click here: https://www.emiratesdiving.com/membership-form/)
  1. Dive Centre preference – dependant on availability:
  2. Your T-shirt size only if you are new to CUA and were not part of CUA 2018, 2019, or 2022:
  3. Does your husband or wife and kids want to join the beach clean-up? Please provide their full names and your child’s/childrens’ ages:

We’ll confirm your registration soon!

THE CAMPAIGN’S OBJECTIVES
  • Engage the community and involve people from all walks of life to make a difference.
  • Rid the marine environment of pollution.
  • Direct people toward positive attitudes in maintaining a clean and sound environment by practice and participation.
  • To record the quantities and types of debris collected each year and to make comparisons with the previous data collections.
  • Data collected is reported to the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) and used in educating the public, businesses, industries and government officials about the marine debris problem we face in the UAE and neighbouring GCC.
CLEANUP ARABIA T-SHIRTS

We have created a sustainable T-shirt brand design and only new CUA participants will receive a T-shirt for all future Cleanup Arabia events. Participants who were part of CUA 2018 and 2019, are to REUSE their T-shirts for future events.

 

REUSABLE DRINKING BOTTLES

All participants are to bring their own REUSABLE water bottles to refill at the water stations as part of our sustainable responsibilities.

 

2023

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