Big Blue Marine Conservation Program at ISS

19/04/2022

A few underwater shots of the gang.

19/04/2022

Congratulations 🎉🍾🎊 to Lulu, Kamilla, Grisha, Liam and Peter on completing their Junior Open Water licenses with Big Blue Diving Koh Tao

3 days, 5 dives, 12 meters underwater and oodles of marine life including a sting ray, eels and a titan triggerfish!

Well done guys! We’ll see you in June for your Junior Advanced License to 22 meters, a wreck and a night dive!

03/04/2022

It's been a few weeks now since our Team at Big Blue Conservation returned from their trip to International School of Samui. You can now read all about week one of the program in the junior school in our new blog post below!

https://www.bigblueconservation.com/internationalschoolprogramweekone/

Big Blue Conservation on tour! Marine Biologists Jade and Ciara, along with Big Blue Diving owner Jim spent two weeks at the International School of Samui.

20/03/2022

And just like that... our time at the International School of Samui has come to an end for this term.

On our final day, manager of Big Blue Conservation and program director Jade, marine biologist Ciara and Big Blue Diving Koh Tao owner Jim were thrilled to receive so many letters of thanks from each student in the junior and senior schools!

We would like to say a big thank you to all of the teachers and students for your contribution to the program, and we hope to see lots of you soon in Koh Tao and of course, for the next leg of the curriculum.

18/03/2022

Cleaning a beach on Koh Samui with the kids of Year 10 International School of Samui

What can we learn from our experience today?

There’s nothing like a dip in the pool after a hard morning at the beach!

18/03/2022

Thursday morning with Year 10 was spent talking about plastic pollution and having discussed some rather sad but interesting facts about pollution and it’s effect on our marine life and how that consequently impacts us.

We took Year 10 to the Seatran pier and had a 20 minute beach cleanup, between the class, we managed to collect around 50kg of trash which included over 100 plastic bottles!

Our afternoon was back in the pool for our very last scuba session of our program, and we were super stoked to see how much interest and enjoyment there was from everyone!

Thanks everyone for all of your enthusiasm today and we do hope you all enjoyed your day with us.

Did you know, students and staff of International School of Samui are eligible for discounts on diving courses only at Big Blue Diving Koh Tao? We hope to see some of you soon 🤙

16/03/2022

Today was all about coral restoration with Year 9.

Marine experts Ciara and Jade from Big Blue Conservation lead a workshop on our artificial reef and coral nursery at Big Blue Diving Koh Tao, explaining everything from the scoping and research behind each project to the the planning and preparation involved in creating and running an artificial reef.

The students then took this knowledge to produce a reef structure of their own, and presented their project to the class providing information on the substrates and species used, monitoring methods, budget and ethical considerations.

We then all hopped in the pool to practice some vital scuba skills, and we even had time to give some of the staff at International School of Samui a go!

15/03/2022

Year 8 on their Big Blue Diving ISS Marine Conservation Program.
How many schools do you know offer their students Try Diving in the school pool?

15/03/2022

Today marked day 7 of our program at International School of Samui with the Year 8 class.

The focus of today's workshop was MPAs and how they can be used to support migratory marine megafauna. We started the session with a talk about the research expertise in the respective fields of marine biologists Jade Getliff and Ciara Hunt followed by an interactive quiz introducing important concepts and vocabulary.

After break we worked together to get into the nitty gritty of case studies of successful MPAs, which helped the students when it came to designing their own MPA later on.

Each pair of students was tasked with designing an MPA with realistic and targeted rules and regulations as well as policing and legislation. Each MPA was designed to protect a real marine species the students were tracking in real time on the OCEARCH website with the use of their class iPads.

They then pitched their MPA to a panel of scientists, who were incredibly impressed with the initiative and forward thinking displayed by the students.

The afternoon session was a little easier on the brain, with students and staff alike hopping into the pool for a try scuba session. Despite some pre-scuba nerves, every single student excelled underwater and had an awesome time! Well done Year 8!

Big Blue Conservation Big Blue Diving Koh Tao

14/03/2022

Thank you to everyone involved in our day with Year 7 today.

Looking forward to a day with Year 8 tomorrow!