Neptune’s Army of Rubbish Cleaners!

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Neptune’s Army of Rubbish Cleaners is a wonderful organisation that started in Wales, and now has volunteers nationwide. Basically, it uses trained divers to go underwater and retrieve lots of rubbish for disposal and recycling, leaving the seas and rivers cleaner for fish and marine creatures (and nice for us too!)

At the end of each trip, volunteers are rewarded with a free leisure dive.

One great thing is that sometimes these volunteers come across trapped underwater wildlife, so are able to free the creatures to go on their way. The home page has a video of one volunteeer doing just that (from fishing waste). So far the charity has carried out over 1000 clean-up dives. Would you like to help?

Obviously if you are a diver, you can get involved. But you could also volunteer to get involved in collecting, sorting and recycling the rubbish that is found, if you prefer your feet on terra firma! Or in the words of NARC ‘if you don’t fancy jumping deep into the water with weights attached!’

The organisation also welcomes anyone who can loan them boats, so they can carry out more volunteer dive clean-ups.

How to become a volunteer diver

If you fancy getting involved as a diving volunteer, you must be qualified to the level of BSAC Sports Diver, PADI Rescue Diver of SSA equivalent and have completed a minimum of 40 dives in the UK. You must provide evidence of your qualifications and insurance, for safety. Air is supplied for your dives (sometimes food too!)

Here are just a few things that divers found in recent dives: