{"id":1855,"date":"2025-08-30T23:36:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T23:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/?p=1855"},"modified":"2026-07-29T13:11:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:11:55","slug":"first-eco-diver-course-completes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/first-eco-diver-course-completes\/","title":{"rendered":"FIRST ECO-DIVER COURSE COMPLETES &#8211; August 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1185\" src=\"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ED1.webp\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"ABOT Eco Diver&#039;s\" style=\"object-fit:cover;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ED1.webp 1500w, https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ED1-300x237.webp 300w, https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ED1-1024x809.webp 1024w, https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ED1-768x607.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<h2>FIRST ECO-DIVER COURSE COMPLETES<\/h2>\n<p>In August 2025, our very first Eco-Diver program came to a proud conclusion as five incredible young Antiguans \u2014 Aunjelique, Hilah, Iman, Lizandro, and Skylie \u2014 became certified Advanced Open Water Divers. Over several months, they not only mastered their dive skills but also dove into fascinating lessons on marine ecology, coral restoration, sea turtles, plastics, and fish identification.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:post-content --><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>Each day began with inspiring talks from guest speakers, followed by afternoons in the water honing their diving abilities. By July, all five had earned their PADI certifications and proved themselves to be natural divers with a real passion for protecting our reefs.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>Now, as new supporters of the ABOT Volunteer Diver group, they\u2019ll continue diving alongside experienced mentors, building confidence until they\u2019re ready to lead reef cleanup dives themselves. We can\u2019t wait to see them grow into \u201cLead Divers\u201d soon!<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>A heartfelt thank you goes out to the Dive Carib team \u2014 Louis Evans, Leigh Cunningham, Mona Walsh, and Burton \u2014 whose guidance and support made this first course such a success.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In August 2025, our very first Eco-Diver program came to a proud conclusion&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1855"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3491,"href":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855\/revisions\/3491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abocean.org\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}