MEDIA RELEASE 12Sep2012 – APPROVED
1st GUWAA World Under Water
Protection and Clean Up Day 16th September 2012
Global
Under Water Awareness Association (GUWAA) was founded by the inspirational
Croatian Kristijan Curavic. The former champion free diver, commercial diver
and scuba instructor Kristijan Curavic is launching the 1st GUWAA World Under
Water Protection and Clean Up Day on 16th September 2012 with the support
of their partners, Prince Albert Of Monaco Foundation and Bernie Ecclestone.
Prominent international human rights and climate change advocate Bianca Jagger,
Founder and Chair of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, is the newly appointed
Patron.
This
project is designed to raise awareness of the need for water protection,
preservation and clean-up of seas, lakes and rivers. GUWAA is the first organization
to bring countries on all continents together to achieve this goal. Sunday the
16th of September, will be the first global clean-up of our most
precious resource - water. The day is organized around the systematic cleaning
of seas, lakes and rivers throughout the world. A coordinated global clean-up
has never before been attempted.
Countries
participating this Sunday are: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Belgium,
Italy, France, England, Monaco, Germany, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Portugal,
Israel, Croatia, Serbia, Monte Negro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia,
Brazil, South Africa, China, Japan, Canada, Russia, Mexico and Korea. In the
USA - Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Hawaii,
Alaska and South Carolina.
In
2013, GUWAA will expand the clean-up.10 cities from each country will participate,
making it the largest ever clean-up of seas, lakes and rivers on record.
It
has been more than 20 years since the Calypso project began exploring our seas
- now GUWAA is launching a new expedition led by Kristijan Curavic, SPEED UNIT.
SPEED UNIT, a team of divers, will travel around the world to organize big
ecological projects and clean ups, to save our seas, lakes and rivers.
A
new era of ecology is coming.
THE LONDON EVENT – Clean up will be 10am to (earliest) 2pm Potomac Lake in
Gunnersbury Park, Pope's Lane, London W3 8LQ
London School of Diving (LSD) is proud to be
spearheading GUWAA in the UK. We feel it is a great project to be involved
with, not just on the 16th September, but on an ongoing basis. There is nothing
more important than protecting the environment for future generations.
With this in mind, Nick Mobley, Managing
Director LSD and President GUWAA UK is also involving other organisations in
the project. Data from the clean up will be registered with Project Aware to
support the Divers against Debris programme and representatives from Mike's
Divestore, Diver Magazine and other charitable organisations will be coming
together to support GUWAA.
The site selected for the first GUWAA project is
Potomac Lake in Gunnersbury Park. London Borough of Hounslow and London Borough of Ealing Council have a long term
regeneration/heritage project for the Gunnersbury Park, recognised as one
of the most important parks in the England which was purchased for the nation
from the Rothschild family in the 1920’s.
As far as we are aware, this lake has never been dived (or
for at least 20+ years). Safety in diving is paramount, so with this in mind,
LSD sent a team of experienced divers to 'recce' the lake to ensure risks to
participants in the clean up are minimized.
Joanna Jones UK representative for GUWAA added
‘This is a fantastic global initiative to protect and clean the most precious
resource we have – water. Everyone can be responsible’
Left to right Derek
Boyle, Evan Stewart, Neil Thomas, Alex Khachadourian, Bruce Milani
UK MEDIA CONTACT:
Joanna Jones, The London Speaker Bureau
T: +44(0)1202 734817 M: +44(0)7855 735620 E:
jo@londonspeakerbureau.co.uk