Snorkeling for the Environment

Above is the certified I receive for my participation during the service day on the Round Square Conference 2010 held in our school.

A certificate I received after the project

What is the Snorkeling for the Environment all about?

During the Round Square Conference 2010, I had the opportunity to contribute in helping my community to clean up the sea surrounding an island called Koh Sak. On the day the team with the help of PADA diving club took a small boat onto sea where we stopped at an island near the Pattaya coast. All the snokellers including myself geared up with our snorkels and fins and went into the sea with a bag for rubbish collection.

What were my initial aims and plans which I wanted to achieve through this activity?

Before going to the activity, I didn't know what to expect. However, I did have some ideas in mind of what I wanted to achieve personally as well as achieving the main aim of the activity. Firstly, since we are going into the sea, snorkel and collect rubbish. I would like to collect as much rubbish as I can within the limited time which we have. Moreover, through the activity I would like to become in a sense an inquirer. This is because I have never been to the area before, and I wondered what the place is going to be like even though I live so close to the area. After the activity, I want to look back into what I've done. Therefore, in terms of what I have achieved on the day and how maybe I can contribute more into the project in the future.

What did I achieve?

I believe that from this activity I have personally gained a larger perspective of my community where I never was aware of before. Therefore I felt like the activity really opened my eyes to the natural environment of Pattaya and the neighboring areas. It was as if I used to live in a bubble, thus not being exposed to the natural environment around me and how it is slowly declining. An observation was made through participating in this activity. I never knew small islands surrounding the coast of Pattaya were coral based where there used to be beautiful corals and wildlife. However, this was not observed now. From snorkeling all you could see was 'death'. All the corals were gone significantly due to the tourist industry and how they did not preserved them. Since the corals were gone, this had a major affect on the habitat where no life was observed. This affected me the most as I am quite disappointed. We accomplished in the cleaning which made me proud of all of us as firstly a section of the beach was cleared completely. This made the area seem more pleasant. Also I managed to dive under water in my snorkeling kit to find bits of plastic buried in sand which I successful pulled out bit by bit. I was happy at what we achieved as a team working together.In my opinion, the most difficult thing about this activity was how I dealt with the emotions which struck me also how the weather hot and humid. Even though we did a great job cleaning up the area, there are still other area around the island and around Pattaya that still needs clearing up. As I was cleaning up a section of the beach, I observed a fish trying its best to survive as it was swimming up side down. This is not great in my opinion. Therefore, overall through participating in this activity I believe that I've engaged with an issue of global importance. My experience taught me that global warming, pollution and the contribution of the tourist industry (particularly in Thailand) to the concept is serious. It is serious because we are losing the natural habitats which once was healthy. I've become more open-minded in a sense that I never new that Pattaya, a place where I was born and bred use to have beautiful corals and fished. It is very disappointing to acknowledge this.