Jetty Dive Centre is a PADI Eco Centre!

Introduction

At Jetty Dive Centre we pride ourselves on being proactive in environmental conservation. We are lucky to explore the beautiful underwater world not just as our career but as our passion. Acknowledging this, we do all that we can to ensure the preservation and protection of this world we love.

This means not only focusing directly on protecting and caring for the marine environment, but also the planet as a whole. So much impacts the ocean, from litter making it’s way into the sea, to the impact of climate change on coral bleaching.

What is a PADI Eco Centre?

“PADI Eco Centre” is an accreditation awarded to PADI dive centres and resorts that demonstrate a dedication to conservation and dive industry sustainability. This label ensures that you can easily find a dive centre that prioritises the environment within all it’s operations.

To be a bit more specific, being a PADI Eco Centre means that we meet specific guidelines PADI has set to qualify for this rating. We have shown exemplary consideration towards good environmental practice, and for considerable lengths of time, in addition to participating in specific PADI environmental initiatives. This includes being an active participant in PADI Aware and Green Fins (A Reef-World Foundation Initiative).

I go into more detail about the specifics on how we achieved this rating below.

What does being a PADI Eco Centre mean to Jetty Dive?

The PADI Eco Centre rating is yet another way that we can demonstrate our committment to the environment throughout our operations. We are proud of our Advanced Ecotourism Certification with Ecotourism Australia, and this certification alone proves that we are committed to our environmental sustainability and that we implement environmental best practice. PADI Eco Centre validates this further. Having PADI as the agency we conduct our courses through helps to demonstrate the depth of this committment to the environment, also ensuring that more people are aware that we operate in this way!

For us at Jetty Dive Centre, this certification is excellent validation that we are progressing in the right direction. We are continuing to create and provide experiences for our customers that don’t just showcase the beauty of the underwater world, they help protect it.

What does being a PADI Eco Centre mean to our customers?

The PADI Eco Centre rating allows our customers to have peace of mind when booking with us. Our customers know that they are booking with a business that shares their passion for ocean conservation.

Individual agencies’ certifications are excellent as they independently verify this committment, but PADI acknowledging our priority for sustainability provides a clear and public display for all customers to share an understanding that when booking with us, they are booking with a Dive Centre that truly cares for the planet.

What did we have to do to become a PADI Eco Centre?

A lot!!

In all seriousness, this certification is a result of the cumulative efforts of Jetty Dive Centre throughout the years of Mike and Deb’s ownership. The procedures have been built over the 28 years of ownership based around the environment and sustainability. Jetty Dive has been an active supporter of PADI Aware throughout the years, and continued to strive to always improve upon its own procedures surrounding sustainability.

As I began the application process for our Ecotourism Australia Advanced Ecotourism Certification I began to document these procedures and actions that we perform, which gave us an excellent benchmark for our sustainability, and helped highlight how we could continue to improve.

Because of this – we were already doing most of the things required to be a PADI Eco Centre.

Some of the requirements are:

• Adopt the Blue: This is an initiative where you can “adopt” a dive site. Adopting a site means we’re taking a social responsibility for marine conservation within the site (where permitted by local government agencies).
• Demonstrate Exemplary Environmental Performance: This means we have made substantial changes to our policies and procedures to prioritise the environment. It also depends on sustainability being embedded as a core business value. We have done this throughout our membership with Green Fins, and with the development of policies and procedures documentation throughout the Ecotourism certification process.
• Active Green Fins Membership: Green Fins is an internationally recognized set of guidelines for Snorkelling and Scuba Diving operations. This membership program requires action plans to continue improving upon your policies and actions. It also connects us with operators all over the world who share the same ethos.

Our performance on these items is then reported back to PADI, then identifying when we qualify as an Eco Centre.

What happens next?

Continuing forward, we strive to always be improving on our sustainability efforts. We believe it is important to continue to strive for better, to avoid complacency and find improvements wherever possible!

Green Fins is an ongoing program requiring yearly audits to determine how to continue to imrpove sustainability. This is a great way to keep us accountable and ensure we continue to strive forward with our sustainability committment!

You can keep up with our environmental efforts through our newsletter, (sign up to our newsletter here! We send emails about once a month) our bi-monthly debrief blog posts, and on our socials! Check out Jetty Dive on Facebook and Jetty Dive Centre Instagram.

About the Author

Tara is Jetty Dive’s Office Manager and IT Lady, Social Media Queen, Crazy-Fish-Lady, and as she likes to say – “Self-Appointed CEO”. You’ll find her sitting at her desk surrounded in pink, but happiest either on or under the water.