Michalis and Aomjai Pachos established Volcano Bubbles Diving School in 2019 on Nisyros Island, Greece. From the beginning, they knew that they wanted to operate an environmentally-conscious dive school that prioritized sustainable business practices. Michalis reflects, “At the beginning, we were looking into the possibility of being 100% electric, even with an electric boat, but quickly we realized we were about 10 years too early for that”. 

Looking for other areas of environmental protection that they could focus on, Michalis, Aomjai and their team quickly settled on the local issue of overfishing and the detrimental effects of human activity on the island’s marine ecosystems over many years. “We found that most of the dive sites we visited had been affected by human activity in some form, but the main issues we were finding were related to overfishing and garbage from the nearby mines on Gyali island. We discovered some fishing nets and fishing line entangled on the rocks, as well as tires and discarded plastic”. Michalis knew that he wanted to make these issues the primary focus of Volcano Bubble’s conservation efforts. 

Leading Marine Debris Action

“From our very first dives on Nisyros we began to collect debris and we still do on all our dives, safety first of course” explains Michalis. Working together with Aegean Rebearth, an organization set up in 2017 aimed at cleaning underwater garbage and local coasts in different locations in Greece, Michalis began to take a leadership role in conservation efforts. He explains, “In 2020 I got the opportunity to be a founding member of NISYRIO. It’s a non-profit organization focused on creating a new living environment on the island of Nisyros. With community at NISYRIO’s core, our goal is to develop and support innovative projects, raise public awareness, and share via socio-cultural activities. Together with Aegean Rebearth we collected tons of plastic and other debris both on land and underwater”. 

Over the following two years, the scale of Volcano Bubble’s efforts to address marine debris increased. “We were organizing and voluntarily supporting, both with manual labor and the dive centers resources, lots of underwater cleaning activity. We found and collected a huge fishing net from between 30 and 40 meters depth from Pyrgusa Island, close to a cave that is an important habitat for local shrimps. We also cleaned the harbor of Nisyros and the Marina of Pali village and collected a total of two tons of debris over two years from just two big organized actions. In 2022 we participated in the cleanup of the nearby big island Kos, again with Aegean Rebreath and NISYRIO”.

Working Together With Local Fishermen

“For years I’ve had concerns over the marine life in Nisyros” recounts Michalis, who thinks back to his childhood experiences and how his local waters have changed in just a few generations. “Growing up in Nisyros, I was always in the ocean with a mask and snorkel. I remember my father telling me of a time when you could fish from shore with big hooks and thick non-transparent threads and catch lots of fish. Nowadays, fishermen need to use specialized gear to catch anything. It’s clear that overfishing is a major issue, but I have respect for fishermen if they practice their job sustainably and with care for the environment”. Michalis’ efforts to address unsustainable fishing practices and tackle ghost fishing gear have shown that when a dive professional reaches out to understand and collaborate with different ocean stakeholders within the community, the potential impact can be greater than that which could be achieved within the diving community alone. “We have worked with the fishermen on our island to encourage sustainable practices and now they are helping us whenever possible. Whenever I see them, all the fishermen I know are giving me information about where to find and remove ghost fishing nets!”

Pioneering Sea Sponge Restoration 

Next, Michalis and team turned their attention to the regeneration of sea sponges. “Sometimes in our dives we found sea sponges that were ripped off the rocks. We think it was happening due to efforts of the fishermen to collect the fishing line that had become entangled on the bottom or by a fish that went into its hiding place inside a rock”. Inspired by time spent in Thailand where he had noticed the diving community were conducting reef regeneration projects, he thought that maybe Volcano Bubbles could do something similar with the sponges. “In 2020 we met marine biologist Dr Theodoros Kambouris who was doing his own research on the topic of sea sponges and during a surface interval I shared the idea with him to do a sponge conservation project similar to coral restoration that is being implemented in tropical regions”. 

Later that year, The Sponge Project was born. “What began as an effort to restore sponge habitats by cutting and planting sponge pieces on marine metal debris left from an old pumice mine, shifted into a scientific study to find the best way to replicate sponges so we could apply the principles to endangered sponge species”. In the past, the Dodecanese islands had a large sponge industry that started from nearby Kalymnos island. As local supplies were exhausted, collectors were at one time finding these sponges as far as the coast of Africa. Michalis explains “Our aim is to do what we can to begin restoring sea sponge health and prevalence in this region to previous levels. And we believe that what we are doing is yielding real results. Cultivation of sponges is definitely possible, as in the past some Greek sponge divers have gone as far as Tarpon Springs Florida and successfully cultivated local sponges there!”

Gaining International Recognition

Michalis proudly recounts the ‘Celebrate Islands’ awards he and his collaborators have now received “As co-founders of NISYRIO, we won the ‘Celebrate Islands’ international competition for two consecutive years. In the first year we won for various activities including our underwater cleanups and in the second year it was because of The Sponge Project”. 

Next, they turned their attention to PADI Eco Center. “When I read that PADI was starting to offer PADI Eco Center recognition, I thought ‘We are ready’, and I got excited and went into a race to make it happen”. After joining PADI AWARE Foundation’s Adopt the Blue network, Volcano Bubbles registered as one of Greece’s first Green Fins Digital Members. After committing to the environmental Code of Conduct and completing a self-assessment of the dive shop’s operational sustainability, an action plan was set. 

Micheal recalls the key steps that they took to meet the PADI Eco Center threshold indicating exemplary environmental best practice, “We had to make a few changes in our way of operation but most of it was already in place, especially passing on to our students the motivation for reducing plastic and collecting marine debris. I found out that during our underwater training, collecting even a small piece of plastic floating around and then addressing the topic in the debriefing on the surface made a big difference. I have had students that were local spear fishers and that became the biggest contributors to our conservation efforts after they became divers and were exposed to even a small amount of marine conservation”.

Michalis and Aomjai wish to see more PADI operators taking a conservation approach and embedding sustainability principles in their business plan. “We hope to see more dive centers joining the PADI Eco Center program because it gives the right tools and especially the motivation for more sustainable diving tourism. Motivation is critical for everything we do in our lives.”

In order to become a PADI Eco Center, each PADI operator has joined PADI AWARE’s Adopt the Blue network and demonstrated an exemplary level of environmental performance through The Reef-World Foundation’s Green Fins initiative. To learn more about PADI Eco Center and the steps you can take at your dive business to begin or continue your sustainability journey, check out the links below. 

PADI Eco Center Launches on Earth Day
Understanding PADI Eco Center: How To Demonstrate Exemplary Environmental Performance

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Conservation, AWARE, Greece, Green Fins, PADI Eco CenterPADI Pros