Halimi's Surface Intervals

Elfira Loy Underwater Pool Shoot, Sept 2014

2014-11-02T23:26:00.000+08:00

Back in September 2014, I was asked to take underwater photos of Malaysian actress Elfira Loy, for an upcoming feature on Pancaindera, the Entertainment pull-out of the Sunday newspaper Mingguan Malaysia. Well, the photos finally came out in print today! Check them out below:

I have mixed feelings. It's nice to finally see the photos come out in print but I am slightly disappointed at how the colours came out. Oh well, you can't win 'em all I guess.

On the positive side, working with Elfira was a joy. She pose well underwater, was relaxed and gave her best efforts to the team. Humble, humble, humble girl.

Thank you to my "safety divers" crew who worked tirelessly with Elfira for the shoot, Ummi Haslinda and Pian. Here they are in action, assisting Elfira.

And here are two of my favourite photos from that session. Unfortunately, both were not chosen for the final print.

Last but not least, the customary photo with the sensational artiste Elfira Loy!

Tour of Niah Cave, Miri, Sarawak, October 2014

2014-10-10T10:42:00.000+08:00

Just uploaded my latest video of the tour of Gua Niah (Niah Cave) in Miri, Sarawak last 2 October 2014. This tour was organised by Tourism Malaysia Sarawak (www.tourism.gov.my) and supported by Sarawak Tourism Board (www.sarawaktourism.com) as part of the Sarawak Adventure Dive 2014 event.

I was awestruck at the sheer size of the Great Cave. No other word to describe it, other than simply amazing!

http://vimeo.com/108534930

Photo session with the enigmatic Elfira Loy

2014-09-17T22:45:00.001+08:00

...just completed a hectic photography session with the enigmatic (and energetic!) Malaysian actress Elfira Loy! I can't reveal the photos yet as they are waiting to appear on a National newspaper. Will do a separate blog on this later. I'm really excited!

Elfira with yours truly and my "crew" for the photo shoot - Ummi and Pyan.

The Star: Missing French Snorkeler Fond Dead in Tioman

2014-09-05T10:35:00.000+08:00

Malaysia's The Star newspaper reporter Ong Han Sean called me yesterday to get some insight into the current practices of monitoring divers and snorkelers in Malaysia and safety issue on these activities. This was in relation to the recent tragedy on a French tourist, Mr Jerome Laurent who went missing while snorkelling off Berjaya Resort in Tioman last Tuesday.

Here's the link to The Star's report by Mr Ong:

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/09/05/Missing-French-tourist-found-dead-in-Tioman/

Don't Dive Deep Beyond Your Training

2014-04-20T13:20:00.001+08:00

Don't dive deeper than what your training allowed.
Don't dive deeper than the recreational diving limit.
Don't dive without proper planning.
Don't take risks, dive another day.
Don't do stupid things.

As a recreational diver, you've all heard these phrases before. You've probably read about it in your Open Water Diver training, you've probably seen it in the training videos. Yet many divers, experienced or otherwise, choose to ignore them. In many cases, with fatal consequences.

Read the article below and hopefully you'll learn a "Lesson for Life":

http://www.scubadiving.com/training/lessons-life/lessons-life-lack-training-prep-spells-doom?src=SOC&dom=fb

Malaysia Airlines MH370 Missing Over South China Sea

2014-03-11T08:53:00.001+08:00

Oh Allah, please help us...

“… hold fast to Allah. He is your Protector – the Best Protector, the Best Helper.” (Qur'an, Surah Al-Hajj, Ayat 78)

Visit Malaysia Year 2014 - "Dive in Paradise" Brochure

2014-02-27T10:34:00.000+08:00

Another friend of mine, Scott Fraser on his way back to Brisbane, picked up a Tourism Malaysia brochure on "Diving in Paradise" at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and saw a few of my pictures in it. Here's some pages from the brochure, courtesy of Scott:

Visit Malaysia Year 2014 - Tourism Malaysia at the AIDE, Sydney

2014-02-23T22:47:00.002+08:00

A friend, Mr Clement Lee yesterday posted on Facebook a photo he took of the Tourism Malaysia booth at the Australia International Dive Expo (AIDE) in Sydney. In the background was a photo which I took in Mid-2013 in Tioman, during the assignment for Tourism Malaysia. The model, as usual my wife Muzie Mulim.

Here's another view of the Tourism Malaysia booth:

Another Diver Death in Tioman

2013-10-11T04:43:00.005+08:00

Last Friday 4 October 2013, yet another diver met with a tragic end while diving in Tioman Island. It was barely a month since the last fatal incident involving two Singaporean divers on that island. I was in Banda Aceh, Indonesia at that time for a dive trip and first read about the incident here:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-incidents/467330-yet-another-scuba-death-tioman-black-pearl.html

and here: http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/10/05/Scuba-Death-pahang.aspx

Details were sketchy back then and what I learnt about the incident, I gathered from fellow scuba instructors who were diving near the area where the incident happened. I was also told that this was the second fatal incident involving the same live-on-board (LOB) vessel, for this year! Some time later, more details of the accident appeared on the local online diver forum, followed by heated discussions regarding who is responsible for the death, safety issues etc. You can read the "colourful" thread here:

http://malaysianunderwater.com/v2/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=11606

After several Facebook discussions with fellow scuba instructors on this issue, it was clear to me that the 28 year old deceased was only recently certified as a PADI Open Water Diver by a local dive instructor and this unfortunate diving trip was his first, after certification. The accident took place on the third dive of the day, which could have meant the victim's 7th dive, perhaps?

I read also that the dive was conducted in less-than-ideal conditions, with slightly choppy surface (as is usual at the onset of the Monsoon season), bad visibility and slight current at the Sea Fan Canyon dive site (also known locally as Teluk Genting). The victim was a part of a group of 19 divers on this LOB dive trip, which was organised by an entity from Kuala Lumpur.

As was written in one of the online forum, the victim was not in the best of health and took some medication prior to the dive (sea sick perhaps?). Somebody made a remark that the victim was also seen shivering after the previous dive. On that particular afternoon dive, the victim's dive buddy had trouble equalizing his ears as the couple descended and had to return to the surface. Unfortunately, his buddy never made it back up. A search was organised and the diver was found only the next morning, close to where they had been diving, with all dive equipment intact (except his mask?) and about 130 bar of air left in the scuba tank. What really happened to him, we may never know. May Allah accept his soul and his deeds.

Here's my take on this issue:

1. An Accident?

An accident, scuba diving or otherwise, is almost never, "just" a random event. More often than not, an accident is the end result of a series of errors or a chain of misjudgments. Consider these scenarios:

The deceased only recently completed his training as a PADI Open Water Diver. Did he receive proper and adequate training during the course and left the course a confident, new diver or did he just "met PADI requirements"? Had he chosen another PADI Instructor and perhaps, received better training, would he have survived that dive?

The live-on-board operator had previous issues related to diver safety. Had the victim chosen to go on another live-on-board or dive with another operator, could he have survived the Tioman dive trip and returned to his family?

The deceased was not feeling well prior to the dive. Had he chosen to skip the dive, relax and recuperate on the LOB, would things have ended differently?

Was there a proper dive briefing given to the deceased before the dive? Was he reminded that in the unlikely event that he looses his buddy, he needs "to search for his buddy for no more than 1 minute and if unable to find, to ascend and re-unite with the buddy at the surface"? When his buddy ascended due to problem with his ear not equalising, had the deceased chosen to ascend together and remain with his buddy, would the dive have ended badly?

The dive site conditions were not ideal on that fateful day. Had the dive trip organiser made the decision to move to another dive site with better conditions, would all 19 divers have made it back to the boat safely?

There were 19 divers on board the LOB. How many dive guides were there? Somebody told me, only ONE. Had there been an experienced dive guide (and one who was not indulging in his own underwater photography) to lead the new divers, would things have turned out differently?

2. Who is responsible?

In my humble opinion, when it comes to diver safety during a dive trip, EVERYBODY has unique responsibilities to take care in order to make sure the dive trip ends happily.

The live-on-board operator is normally the entity having the most experience when it comes to evaluating the environmental condition at a dive site. Even if they are not divers themselves, having visited the same dive location almost every weekend of the diving season should give them enough experience to judge the surface condition and current strength and direction. They can offer these valuable information to the dive operator or dive trip leader, which could help him/her decide whether to make the dive or otherwise.

The dive operator or dive trip leader is responsible for many, many things. Even before a dive trip takes place, the dive operator has to make a conscious decision to chose a particular live-on-board operator over the others. What criteria are used to make this very important decision? Safety track record of the LOB operator? Price? How many people can the LOB accommodate? How many toilets are available on the LOB? Next comes the dive planning. If the dive operator is a PADI professional (meaning that he/she is certified either as a Divemaster, Assistant Instructor or Instructor), he/she would have been made aware during those professional-level courses that he/she IS RESPONSIBLE for the "broad planning" for the dive. To me, "broad planning" includes the selection of the dive site, assigning buddy teams, setting appropriate depth and dive time, etc. as laid out in the pre-dive briefing guidelines. The PADI "Code of Practice" also clearly stated that a PADI professional must "evaluate the dive conditions and environment and determine if (he/she is)...ready to teach or lead dives there." If the dive operator is NOT a PADI professional (or a diving professional with another scuba certification agency), then would you dive with him or her?

The individual diver is responsible for making his/her own dive plan, based on the "broad plan" made by the dive operator in the point above, and to dive this plan. However, in this particular case where the victim was (maybe?) only making his 7th dive, he clearly did not have enough experience to make an effective dive plan on his own. Therefore, the responsibility thus fell back to the dive operator to either (i) Help this new diver form a proper dive plan, or (ii) Assign a more experienced diver as his dive buddy so that together they can make a good diver plan. The diver also has the responsibility to make the final decision whether to dive or not. Once again here, due to this new diver's inexperience, the responsibility fell back to the dive operator to choose a dive site which is appropriate to this new diver's level of training and experience.

In reflection, the reason I choose to dive with another LOB operator in Tioman is because I know I could always count on the boat captain to advise me on the dive site condition. When he advices, I listen. My instructors do too. Next, we choose dive sites suitable for the divers and the dive objectives. Most often than not, these dive sites are pretty boring to me. However, to the new divers, they are safe and enjoyable. If I want to dive a beautiful site, I go to Bali or Raja Ampat. A beautiful dive site is sometimes not conducive to dive in. Is that a problem? No. Just remember that there's always another day.

I always ask potential divers to place safety before price when choosing who to learn diving from and who to go diving with. When accident happens, that RM100 you saved off that dive operator or scuba instructor may not mean anything anymore.

I believe that a series of errors made by various parties involved in this Tioman dive trip eventually led to the tragedy. However, the real tragedy is when those responsible for the accident do not want to admit their responsibilities and change the way they work, in order to make their dive trips safer in the future.

Diver Deaths in Tioman

2013-09-15T14:54:00.001+08:00

On Saturday, 7 Sept 2013, two Singaporean divers drowned in (according to unofficial account) just 3 meters of water near the beach in Air Batang (ABC) Village in Tioman. As I understood from oficial news and information gathered from friends in Tioman, a scuba instructor was conducting a Confined Water session just off the beach near Nazri's Place with three open water students. The group went for a Confined Water session the previous evening and most likely did not manage to finish the whole session. Therefore, they went to the beach again the next day to complete the session. Confined Water sessions are a part of the Open Water Diver course wherein student divers learn scuba skills in shallow water, defined as at depth not exceeding 5 meters.

The location of the accident at Ayer Batang Village, Tioman (photo courtesy of www.tioman.org)

Unfortunately, on that fateful Saturday morning, the scuba instructor made a serious error in judgement. He decided to conduct the second Confined Water session using the same set of scuba tanks used on the previous day. During the session, the students ran out of air in water no deeper that 3 meters. Two of the students apparently remembered their training, swam to the surface using the "Controlled Emergency Swimming Acent" or "CESA" technique they just learnt and orally inflated their Buoyancy Control Device (BCD) jacket. The third student panicked underwater, grabbed his instructor's BCD octo-inflator (BCD inflator + octopus combination) and in his struggle, ripped the inflator mechanism out of the instructor's BCD. The male student died of drowning with zero air in his tank while the scuba instructor was found dead with about 20 bar left in his tank.

Here are several sources of news on the incident and some follow-up reports:

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/09/08/Singaporean-drowned-Tioman.aspx

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-incidents/465085-deaths-tioman.html

http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Features/2013/09/14/Scuba-safety.aspx

Here's my take on this whole incident:

A "reasonably prudent scuba instructor" would have used full tanks for the second session. The dead instructor probably tried to save on RM35 (about USD10) fee per tank for the second scuba session. That decision proved to be fatal.

The deaths has got nothing to do with the Scuba Certification Agency (PADI, NAUI, SSI, etc.) method or philosophy of scuba education. Standards are there as a guideline but a scuba instructor must exercise "Good Judgement".

Personally, I prefer to teach using the same scuba equipment configuration as my students. Using an octo-inflator combo on the BCD, in my humble opinion, although not disallowed in the teaching standard, might confuse the new students as they don't see the instructor having the same stuff as he/she has. Think about this: while teaching students how to perform the "alternate air source sharing" skill, the instructor switched to his octo-inflator combo while giving his own regulator to the student. When the student practice this skill, he/she keeps his/her regulator and "donates" an octopus to the buddy to breathe from. That's different. A small difference but, in a panic situation as what had happened, the victim went for his instructor's octo-inflator maybe because he could not find an octopus on the instructor. That decision proved fatal, for the instructor.

Many instructors and dive centres try to minimise the cost of running a scuba course, especially entry level courses such as the Open Water Diver course because many potential students look for the cheapest scuba course they can find. Students choose to start a diving course with one dive centre over another, just to save RM50 (USD15). In some cases, the cost savings can come from "cutting corners" during the course (e.g. not teaching some of the more "time-consuming" skills like compass use or the skin diving skills). In the case here, the instructor tried to do all Confined Water skills (that's 20 scuba skills altogether!) using a single scuba tank. In a price war, both the diving industry and the customers lose. Then again, accidents such as above will not stop many people from looking for the cheapest bargain, hence many scuba instructors will continue to cut corners in order to offer the lowest course price possible. Accidents like this WILL happen again, I'm sure.

TV2 "Hello On Two" Talk on Underwater Photography

2013-07-31T05:05:00.000+08:00

I was invited to appear on TV2 "Hello On Two" morning talk show on 28 May 2013 to discus about underwater photography. Just got a copy of the video.

Part 1: TV2 "Hello On Two" Morning Talk Show Interview from Halimi Abdullah on Vimeo.

Diving Medicine for Scuba Divers - FREE eBook

2013-07-01T17:31:00.003+08:00

I just found out that the "Diving Medicine for Scuba Divers" book, previously sold by the Divers Alert Network (DAN) is now available in eBook format for FREE!

If you're interested in learning more about medical conditions, medicines and treatments related to scuba diving, this book is invaluable. Download it from here:

http://www.divingmedicine.info/

Now, on a related issue of diving safety, if you are not yet a Member of the Divers Alert Network (DAN) and have no diving injury insurance to cover your scuba activities, I strongly suggest you go over to:

http://www.danasiapacific.org/

and register to become a Member and buy at least their Master Plan diving injury insurance. It costs only about RM480 / AUD160 per year for the membership and insurance coverage so there's no reason not to get yourself protected. DAN is a global network of not-for-profit, member-based organisations and DAN Asia-Pacific has a region of responsibility that extends throughout Asia and the Pacific region.

TV3 "Malaysia Hari Ini" (MHI) Interview

2013-06-13T23:04:00.001+08:00

Just found a video of my interview by Malaysia's TV3 for "Malaysia Hari Ini" (MHI) morning talk show which was recorded sometime in April 2011. The talk was focused on the Project AWARE beach cleanup program in Dungun, Terengganu which Ocean Elements was organizing back then with SCOMI Marine Berhad.

Go Dive - Latest PADI Promo Video

2013-06-13T11:42:00.001+08:00

PADI just released a new "Start Diving" promo video on Youtube and, seriously, it's way cool. Please share it with your non-diver friends. Who knows, it may inspire them to take up diving...with Ocean Elements of course ;)

Sport Diver Magazine Published My Photo

2013-06-08T21:55:00.000+08:00

Sport Diver Magazine (www.sportdiver.com) had selected one of my underwater images to publish in it's Asia Pacific online edition for May/June 2013. It was a photo of my wife Muzie at the Sabang Wreck in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia taken during Ocean Elements dive trip in November 2012.

Unfortunately, that photo was supposed to depict one of the wrecks near the town of Sabang in Puerto Galera, Philippines and not the one in Pulau Weh. Somehow, the editors at Sport Diver overlooked the caption that accompanied my image when they found it at my Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/halimi). They did not realise (actually, neither did I) that there are two towns that not only have the same name but both also have well-known wrecks. Hmm.

I'm ecstatic nonetheless.

Anatomy of My Typical Underwater Image

2013-05-11T01:00:00.000+08:00

Here's a brief run-through of my typical thought processes as I am composing and taking an image underwater. It's not always the case but in many of my images, these are some of the few things I consider before I take that shot. As much as possible I try to avoid the "spray and pray" shooting technique as I think it's much too wasteful and honestly, I'm just too lazy to go through hundreds of images later and find out that 90% of them are useless to me.

Underwater Panorama - Tenggol Island, Malaysia

2013-04-23T14:07:00.001+08:00

Here's one of my earliest attempt in shooting a reef scene in panorama mode, using the impressive built-in panorama shooting mode of my SONY NEX-7 Interchangeable Lens camera. The scene above is of the fringing reefs off Turtle Point in Tenggol Island, Terengganu, Malaysia.

Shooting details: F/2.8, 1/500, ISO160 (Exposure parameters set automatically by the built-in "Panorama" shooting mode of the NEX-7). Manual white balance.

The built-in stitching program is not perfect. Upon close inspection, you can see some "colour band" on the table corals in the foreground, due to uneven exposure. Nevertheless, for a quick, one shot, fully automatic panorama image stitching, the result is still impressive.

Sunset in Lang Tengah Island

2013-04-22T01:03:00.001+08:00

Sunset in Lang Tengah island, Terengganu, Malaysia, captured using my ageing iPhone 3Gs. The iPhone camera continues to amaze me with this kind of image capture. Amazing.

#iphoneography

Instructor Development Course (IDC) in Koh Lanta, Krabi

2013-04-15T13:14:00.001+08:00

I just finished assisting PADI Platinum Course Director Azman Sulaiman in his Instructor Development Course (IDC) in Koh Lanta, Krabi, Thailand. We had six candidates, two of whom completed their PADI Divemaster training with me. The course was held at Anti Gravity Divers located at Amantra Resort on Klong Nin beach in Koh Lanta Yai.

The IDC started almost two-and-a-half weeks ago with a 4-day "prep" course followed by eleven days of the actual instructor course. At the end of the IDC, the instructor candidates went through two days of the PADI Instructor Examination (IE) conducted by Rob Scammel from PADI Asia Pacific. During the IE, candidates demonstated their knowledge in Dive Theories and PADI System, Standards and Procedures and their skills in teaching Knowledge Development, Confined Water and Open Water segments as well as skills demonstration and diving rescue.

I'm happy to say, all six candidates passed the IE. Now I have two new Open Water Scuba Instructors to help me teach courses in Kuala Lumpur.

In the photo above are IDC staff instructors Dalton Hopper and Anand Chandra Sekaran from Anti Gravity Divers Koh Lanta, Platinum Course Director Azman Sulaiman and yours truly.

Below are the new PADI OWSI: Aiman Zanani (Malaysia), Scott Fraser (New Zealand), Pablo Dutto (Spain), Hafiz Rahman (Malaysia), Petra Jakoby (Slovakia) and Mohan Kutty (India).

Classroom session

Emergency First Response (EFR) Instructor training

Confined Water session

Confined Water teaching

Rescue Demonstration

Briefing by PADI Course Director for Open Water Teaching session

Koh Haa - location for the Open Water Teaching session

New PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors (OWSI) with IDC Staffs

GoPro's Baby Dubstep Video 2013

2013-02-05T13:00:00.002+08:00

I have produced GoPro (gopro.com) videos before, usually for our underwater encounters. I thought I have made the coolest videos on the planet. I was dead wrong. Totally. This 30 seconds advertisement made by Kyle Camerer (@KyleCamerer) for GoPro and was shown during NFL Super Bowl XLVII blew all other GoPro videos out of the water. Check it out:

By the way, in case you're STILL interested to view my underwater videos, they're here at http://vimeo.com/halimi.

My Best Image of 2012

2013-01-25T12:45:00.000+08:00

Manta ray, Nusa Penida, Bali - September 2012.

Sony NEX-7 with 16mm pancake lens + Fisheye converter. Nauticam underwater casing. Inon Z-240 strobes.

Two things that came together for this shot: Right location, right time.

If you want to shoot Manta, go to places where Mantas are aplenty - Nusa Penida, Raja Ampat, Maldives etc. Morning or afternoon is best. I prefer mornings since in a lot of locations, visibility is usually better early in the day. 1/125 speed at least to freeze motion. F/13 or smaller aperture for depth of field.

Visit Malaysia Year 2014

2013-01-24T00:49:00.001+08:00

Here's one of my underwater photos from the Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) Marine Park, featured on a recently-published Tourism Malaysia brochure.

Reflections on 2012: Tourism Malaysia Underwater Photography Assignment

2013-01-24T00:42:00.001+08:00

My biggest achievement in 2012, without a doubt, was the underwater photography assignment I received from Tourism Malaysia (www.tourism.gov.my) to cover 11 islands in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah. The underwater images are for use by Tourism Malaysia in their "Visit Malaysia Year 2014" marketing campaign, which is currently underway.

Together with two other photographers, including my good friend Ariff Budiman (www.ariffbudiman.com), we started the assignment at Pulau Payar near Langkawi and finished off at the Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) Marine Park in Sabah. There were lots of experiences gained and some that I wished to forget altogether (will require several teh tarik sessions to cover these alone) but in the end, the job was delivered as per requirement.

In retrospect, some of the shooting sessions could have been organized better which could have led to much better photos. I guess we'll leave that for the next big assignment :)

A selection of photos from the assignment is presented below. The copyright of images from this assignment belongs wholly to Tourism Malaysia so what I did was to obtain the following images that I have authored during the assignment and which are now publicly displayed on the Tourism Malaysia Image Gallery here:

http://imagegallery.tourism.gov.my/fotoweb/default.fwx?archiveId=5001#/ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS

Coral Reef Conservation Seminar at Sekolah Menengah (Secondary School) Paka, Dungun

2012-04-29T23:10:00.001+08:00

Ocean Elements organized a coral reef conservation seminars on 13 April 2012 for 50 students of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (National Secondary School) Paka, Dungun, Malaysia. 50 staffs from the local branches of Bank Islam also joined in the seminar held at the school. As usual, yours truly was given the opportunity to conduct this Project AWARE (www.projectaware.org) seminar.

At the end of the seminar, the students were awarded Project AWARE certificates while the school received a collection of books and reference materials on the ocean, marine conservation and marine animals, courtesy of the event sponsor, Bank Islam.

We would like to thank the Dungun District Education Office (Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah) and SM Paka Secondary School for providing the coordination and logistics assistance necessary for Ocean Elements to organise this seminar.

Project AWARE Beach Cleanup, Dungun, Malaysia - 13 April 2012

2012-04-29T22:58:00.000+08:00

This event marked the second year Ocean Elements Sdn Bhd - PADI Dive Centre had organised a beach cleanup event in Dungun, Terengganu, Malaysia. We would like to thank Majlis Perbandaran Dungun (Dungun City Council) for their support and assistance which made this year’s event another success. This year’s event is wholly sponsored by Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (Bank Islam) as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

This year’s cleanup event span the entire 10km length of Dungun beach, starting from Teluk Gadung, all the way to Tanah Lot. More than 100 staffs of Bank Islam from their Headquarter in Kuala Lumpur and the local branches took part in the cleanup, together with about 350 Dungun residents from several nearby schools, Politeknik Dungun, Universiti Teknologi MARA and government agencies including the police, fire department and the Civil Defense department, volunteering hand-in- hand with the Dungun City Council cleaning contractors.

At the end of the 3-hour program, 875kg of thrash comprising mostly of plastic materials and glass bottles collected from the beach were weighted and sorted for Project AWARE statistics. 20 volunteers then spent nearly one hour just to sort and weigh all the rubbish collected.