Liveaboard diving photography course, Greece

This underwater photography course has an eco focus. It teaches divers how to interact with marine life and grow more intimate connections with the world they visit. To become a good underwater photographer it’s essential that you appreciate and understand the underwater beings that you come face to face with. If you understand them, you know where to find them, how to approach them in order not to scare them and disrupt their life, how to observe their behaviours and capture a unique picture showing to the rest of the world the magic of the underwater world.

The course starts with a presentation on marine ecology and conservation and each dive is followed by a discussion of the species that have been observed and photographed.

In general with all our trips, we’re trying through our activities to encourage travellers, and divers more specifically in this situation, to approach places they visits with greater understanding and respect. A few of our activities and actions related to the marine environment:

• We use biodegradable cleaning products and avoid the dump of chemicals into the see.
• We inform our guests upon arrival that they shouldn’t throw any kind of waste in the sea and they should recycle plastic bottles in the designated place.
• We try to minimise the impact of our boat on the marine environment by using the motor as little as possible, mainly just to enter and leave the port.
• We avoid, when mooring the boat, to throw the anchor on meadows of Poseidonia Oceanica which are essential for the ecosystem. We always use permanent moorings when provided.
• We brief our guests not to collect any corals or shells from the sea or beach. They are encouraged though to help us clean any garbage that they see inside the water or on the beach.
• We organise free Marine ecology seminars for diving instructors and present a brief version of this to every diver that joins us. This involves a briefing on how to monitor the level of anthropogenic impact on a marine site and warn our scientist of any deterioration they observe.
• We organise an annual underwater eco photography with the aim of raising awareness for the protection of marine sites and our seas. This project is headed by the environmentalist in our team.

When our sailing boat, is not chartered, we sail around cleaning beaches, recycling or giving a helping hand to researchers and organisations in their efforts to collect data in order to study and protect the environment and wildlife.

Our base has become the island of Syros where most of the maintenance work is carried out. We employ locals for all the jobs concerning the boat. We buy materials for the maintenance of the boat from local shops. We encourage guests to visit and try the local cuisine and purchase local goods wherever we go in order to get a taste of the local culture and also support the local community.