We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rally together to protect what we love.
The global dive community will unite for the 8th annual AWARE Week from 13-21 September, 2025 – a celebration of purpose, action, and impact. As a PADI Professional, you’re more than a dive leader; you’re a Torchbearer for the ocean.
This year, we spotlight the launch of the PADI AWARE Conservation Action Portal (CAP), a powerful new tool to take and track ocean-saving actions. Whether you’re hosting a Dive Against Debris® event, teaching the PADI AWARE® Specialty, or rallying divers to sign a global petition, every action shapes the future of our blue planet.
The CAP is the AWARE APP. Whether you access it via the desktop or mobile, it’s the same powerful platform; use whatever works best for you.
Above the Surface
You don’t have to be underwater to take action. Here are some things you can do to celebrate AWARE Week topside.
Drive Impact With the Conservation Action Portal
The Conservation Action Portal is a one-stop shop for conservation action – making it easier than ever for PADI Divers, Professionals, and Dive Centers to contribute meaningful data and engage in conservation directly through the dives you’re already doing and leading.
The power of PADI AWARE lies in you – passionate PADI Professionals with first-hand experience of the ocean and a drive to protect it. Here are five ways you can make a local impact with global reach using the Conservation Action Portal:
- Collect your Torchbearer badge
- Submit citizen science surveys
- Register Adopt the Blue sites
- Sign key petitions
- Donate to support ocean conservation
Take the Ocean Torchbearer Pledge
As a PADI Professional, you have a unique opportunity to lead by example and bring your dive center into the global Ocean Torchbearer™ Community. By taking the Pledge, you’ll stay connected to current campaigns, conservation initiatives, and resources designed to inspire action and drive impact.
No matter your conservation experience, your leadership matters. Every action, above or below the surface, helps build a healthier, more resilient ocean.
Below the Surface: Turn Every Dive Into Impact
Divers are uniquely positioned to document what lies beneath and turn observations into advocacy. Empower your divers to collect critical data, monitor ocean health, and become part of a conservation-ready dive force.
Teach the Dive Against Debris Specialty Course
Dive Against Debris is not just a PADI AWARE Specialty course; it’s also a powerful citizen science program that provides tools to remove debris from dive sites and gather crucial survey data to forward essential conservation measures and help rid the ocean of marine debris.
All PADI Assistant Instructors and higher are now automatically eligible to teach the Dive Against Debris Specialty. Learn how to activate this new PADI AWARE Member benefit here.
You now have the power to activate your divers and participate in regular Dive Against Debris surveys to become part of the solution. You can now offer the Dive Against Debris Specialty as a digital product to your customers and as an easy add-on to your PADI Open Water Diver and Advanced Open Water Diver courses. Students can complete knowledge development online before they arrive at your dive center to earn their final certification, providing more flexibility for instructors and dive operators.
Make Every Dive a Survey Dive
Thanks to PADI Professionals like you, Dive Against Debris has enabled the creation of the world’s largest marine debris database. As the largest contributors to the Dive Against Debris database, PADI Professionals play a critical role in stopping plastic pollution. Your passion and commitment to ocean health is unparalleled.
Whenever you dive, you can submit your data and that of your divers to the Dive Against Debris program. This effort supports PADI AWARE Foundation’s policy work to create a standardized global monitoring solution for marine debris. It is as easy as logging your dives in the Conservation Action Portal! To do this, quality data is required. And as divers, we have the skills to gather data that no other community can. By acting as citizen scientists, our data is instrumental in achieving the protection our ocean and its inhabitants need.
In 2024, Torchbearers submitted over 6,000 surveys and helped remove 500,000+ pieces of debris. Let’s go even further in 2025.
Host AWARE Week Events
One of the easiest ways to get involved in AWARE Week is to host a local event or other conservation activity. Here’s how:
- Plan Your AWARE Week Activities – Engage students in your local conservation efforts, such as a community-wide Dive Against Debris event that invites everyone in to help at or below the surface, or a workshop that highlights the primary issues affecting your local marine ecosystem and ways to help.
- Market Your AWARE Week Activities – Amplify your events so the local community of divers and ocean enthusiasts can join you. Take advantage of the marketing tools on the PADI Pros’ Site and list your AWARE Week event and conservation activities with the Conservation Activities Locator. Log in to the Extranet to register your event now. It’s easy! Simply create a Conservation Activity and tag it as an “AWARE Week” Special Event.
Share Your Stories & Events
The PADI AWARE community chooses to be ocean optimists. Together, our actions – big or small – can and do inspire and empower others all over the globe to join our mission to save the ocean. Check your official PADI Pros Marketing Hub to access marketing tools to promote your conservation efforts.
Tag @paditv and @padiaware on your social media stories and posts, and use the following hashtags to tell us your AWARE Week stories. You might even be featured in our social media posts and celebratory photo albums!
- #AWAREWeek
- #SaveTheOcean
- #DiveAgainstDebris
- #AdoptTheBlue
- #LocalActionGlobalImpact
- #EveryDiveaSurveyDive
Thank You to Our Partner
AWARE Week is proudly supported by Blancpain, the Official Partner of the PADI Blueprint for Ocean Action and Founding Partner of the PADI MPA Program and Adopt The Blue™.
