Once again, on 24 and 25 October, Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre (NEC) opened its doors to DIVE 2015, the UK's biggest annual event for scuba divers.

From raising awareness of the global marine debris crisis to rallying support for our Dive Against Debris citizen science programme, we had a fantastic weekend at DIVE 2015 doing what we do best: mobilizing the world's divers into a global force to protect the ocean - one dive at a time.

As part of this 2-day event, PADI, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, invited the team to give a short Project AWARE update to PADI Pros attending the PADI Member Forums scheduled on Saturday and Sunday. It was the perfect opportunity to encourage dive professionals to join the growing number of 100% AWARE partners, renew their commitment to ocean protection through their PADI Membership Renewal, and invite them to our upcoming exclusive Dive Against Debris workshop at DEMA, November 4-7, 2015.

One of the many highlights of the weekend was the Sport Diver Awards and Charity Auction in aid of Project AWARE which took place at the prestigious National Motorcycle Museum on Saturday 24th October. The silent auction launched on 1st October but adventurers and explorers, Monty Halls and Andy Torbet, who were hosting the Awards, also encouraged people attending the ceremony, to show their support for the auction before it ended at 10pm during the event. In a captivating and very entertaining speech, they both announced the winning bidders of the auction to more than 300 divers, dive industry leaders and manufacturers who were eager to find out who the winners of the Sport Diver Awards 2015 and lucky bidders were. More than 400 bids were made on the silent auction website, with a total of £5,480 raised.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better result, and with almost £5,500 raised, we can strengthen our programs for hands-on citizen science, education and local action across the globe. We are grateful for all the generous prizes donated by long-term Project AWARE supporters, dive businesses, and dive industry manufacturers and for all those who placed bids.” commented Domino Albert, Project AWARE Global Communications Manager.

“We hope that each of the winning bidders will enjoy having their prize and be reminded of Project AWARE’s mission and vision for a return to a clean, healthy and abundant ocean planet.” she added.

A special thank you goes to Sport Diver for their support year-round and for hosting our first ever silent auction. We look forward to organizing a similar event as many of this year's sponsors have already confirmed their support for 2016. Thank you to all divers and supporters who made DIVE 2015 and our charity auction a true success!

DIVE 2015 Photos Album