This past year I got certified through Silent World Dive Center. My Instructor Michael made it an unforgettable experience. He not only was patient, kind, and safety oriented but he also holds a degree in Marine Affairs and explained everything about diving within a sanctuary and how to limit my effect on the ecosystem while still getting to dive and appreciate the underwater world.
As a PADI Eco center, Silent World and its staff are very knowledgeable and informative about safe diving practices and how important ecotourism is when diving on the 3rd largest barrier reef in the world. Michael explained to me everything about diving and snorkeling within a Sanctuary Preservation Area, also known as a SPA Zone, that are all throughout John Pennekamp State Park where we completed my Open Water Dives.
You can tell the entire staff genuinely care about the environment and ways to limit the impact of tourism on the reef through their safe diving practices and focus on buoyancy control and safe boating practices. The Captain of the boat, Killian, also explained what it means to be a Blue Star operator.
During his safety briefing he mentions that Silent World is part of Blue Star, a program established by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary to help mitigate the impact divers and snorkelers have on the marine environment. This program is in collaboration with NOAA Fisheries and many other different programs all with the goal of protecting the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. All Blue Star operators go the extra mile to facilitate responsible tourism as well as educate all customers on their vessels about the health of the reef, the ecosystem, and how to carry responsible diving practices all over the world.
Michael made sure to spend extra time on my buoyancy when getting certified so that no part of myself or my gear would be in danger of affecting the corals or disturbing the marine environment where we did our Open Water Dives.
He also had the knowledge to share with me why coral was such a vital part of the marine ecosystem and when damage is done it could take hundreds sometimes thousands of years to grow back and the effect it would have on the reef for generations to come.
Wanting to get more Involved with Conservation
After getting certified Michael and all the staff gave me so much important information about the marine environment and the sanctuary, I was eager to use my new certification to become more involved with ocean conservation. When I got back to the dock one of the girls in the shop, Yasmin, gave me so much helpful information on how to get involved in conservation as a newly certified diver. Not only do they partner with the Coral Restoration Foundation to do public dive programs to show you the coral conservation work the Non-profit does, but Coral Restoration Foundation has an educational session the morning of the dive and then in the afternoon they take you to the coral nursery where they grow over 19 species of critically endangered coral species and, weather permitting, sometimes they even take you out to the reef to do some coral outplanting! Yasmin even told me that due to the in-depth educational session with Coral Restoration Foundation, for a small fee they could process me as a coral restoration certified diver!
Yasmin also let me know there was a free Dive Against Debris happening at the end of the week! She explained to me that the Dive Against Debris program was funded with Grants and one of the local Non-Profits, iCare, was facilitating what they call the Trash Derby! iCare helps organize the Trash Derby once a year and tons of local dive shops participate and you get to dive for free to clean up the ocean within John Pennekamp State Park with Silent World.
The Day of the Trash Derby
On the day of the Trash Derby, I arrived at Silent World to the girls in the shop greeting me, making sure I had my Open Water Diver Certification card as well as all my paperwork to participate in the Trash Derby. The girls in the shop were very organized and kind, making sure everyone had the gear that they needed, knew where everything was on the property and offered us reef safe sunscreen. Mallory even gave us some tips about buying our own reef safe sunscreen because apparently it is harder to identify which sunscreens are reef safe than just it being labeled on the front!
After that we got into groups of divers and our Instructors Ashlyn and Alex gave us a short briefing on everything we would be doing on our two-tank dive. They let us know what we could and could not remove during the dives and gave us an overview of what all the corals might look like should we need to identify them on marine debris. I had no idea that if a piece of marine debris had started growing coral on it you could not take it from the reef!
After their dive briefing, I spoke to Ashlyn and Alex a little bit, Alex mentioned she is a Conservation Biologist who specialized in Coral Reef Restoration and that she loves getting to help participate in the conservation side of Silent World as well as introduce people to conservation and the world of diving. Ashlyn mentioned she is an Environmental Scientist and loves to teach the PADI Aware specialty courses where she gets to educate divers further on shark conservation and species identification!
I absolutely loved how many different environmental scientists and marine biologist Silent World had on staff, because everywhere you turned there was a different staff member who specialized in any question you had. It was also amazing seeing so many women who are professional divers and loved the work they were doing.
Once the captain did a quick safety briefing on the dock, we were off! It was a gorgeous day, and I was extremely excited to go and get some experience helping clean up the ocean!
Cleaning Trash in America’s Only Barrier Reef
On our way out to our first site the deckhand offered us complimentary reef safe sunscreen, chips, sodas, and defog for when we got to the dive site. While underway the instructors let us know which equipment we were allowed to use and to avoid the knives and lift bags should we encounter anything heavy our dive leads would be responsible, so everyone’s safety was accounted for.
Once we hoped in, I saw a beautiful reef full of soft corals and different tropical fish, it was even better than I remembered because I wasn’t having to do any skills from my open water course, and I felt calmer and more confident being a fully certified diver. We ended up finding multiple broken lobster traps that our guides helped us safely remove from the reef without disturbing any part of the reef. We also found a huge rope that was completely wrapped around the reef that the dive guides used knives to carefully remove It from the sea fans and reef so that nothing was pulled or damaged further.
Our dive guides were calm and confident using the lift bags to bring the different marine debris to the surface. Everyone was excited about how much debris we were able to remove from the reef and the excitement was contagious as we headed back to the dock.
Once we got back to the dock, we had just enough time to shower and get changed for the iCare Trash Derby after party where they had local food and vendors all gathered to support the removal of that much marine debris. They also announced the total amount of marine debris that was removed from the ocean in just one day! It was truly amazing to be surrounded by divers of all skill levels working towards keeping the ocean protected and clean. I even found some new dive buddies that I will be diving with in the future!
I am so thankful I found such a great dive shop that was so focused on ocean conservation and stewardship, and I am already planning my next trip out with Silent World and excited for the next trash derby!
