Member News

Plastics causing marine debris harm water dwellers and depress the rate at which oceans absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. The UAE wants this connection, so the country links ocean health to the clean development plan under the Carbon-neural vision. This strategy addresses the reduction and recycling of wastes such as plastics, which it claims to release large amounts of carbon.

Those using Apnea Zone participants realize that they can contribute to the changes that might occur in the community. They are instrumental in ensuring many forms of marine life are saved by participating in cleaning and picking plastics from the seabed. But their efforts continue after this. These divers engage in ‘performative activism’ in the sense that, together with informing the polymer pollution problem to the rest of the divers and the general public, they pressure other divers and the community into taking affirmative corrective measures.

The success of the freedivers movement lies in their solid civic culture, where hard work and teamwork are the norm. They gather pollution data, extract pollutants from the oceans, and work towards improving the climate from the ground up.

Apnea Zone’s freedivers have the vision and passion to make the UAE’s planned Clean Growth Strategy largely polished. That is why they illustrate that positive change is possible by rising to the challenge and providing an example. There are words by Helen Keller that fit well the thinking of the freedivers, where she stated: ‘Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. ‘ In this sense, the collective work of the freedivers is focused on making lifestyle and practices under water more sustainable, clean and healthier ocean for future generations.

Author: Bassel Ounah

P.S Photographer is Costas Constantinou, the Frrediver in the Picture is Isabel Sanchez-Aran (Isabela)