I have been instructing for a couple of years and throughout all of my teaching, I always talk about Project AWARE and try to encourage people to get involved whether it's by Diving Against Debris or completing one of the dry specialties.

At a recreational level, this has become a lot more difficult this year with people seemingly a lot more reluctant to sign up to continuing education courses. The number of Dive Against Debris specialties that I have taught this year has reduced from a respectable 25 last year to just 8 in 2018.

However, not to be disheartened by this, myself, along with my business partner Kerrie Eade of ProDiveUK - that specialises in professional level training, ensure that all of our IDC candidates get free Dive Against Debris Instructor training alongside their standard course to make sure that they can go on to teach a broader range of students the importance of looking after the aquatic world.

We have trained around 20 people in this specialty throughout 2018 and they all see the huge benefits of being able to teach this course which we truly believe is one of the most powerful and useful specialties available. Not only does it equip divers with a really vital set of skills but it can count as an adventure dive and a complete specialty that can motivate them to work toward their MSD rating. Teaching this specialty to all of our Instructor candidates also puts them on the path to MSDT and motivates them to keep continuing their education too.

Despite the lack of engagement from the recreational level students in recent months, I will continue to push the conservation message from all angles, especially over the chilly winter season in the UK to keep promoting the good work of Project AWARE and show people that they can make a positive difference to the ocean planet no matter how big or small the changes that they can make.

(I may not wear the shark hat for all the teaching though!)