Some persons are born to make waves, not simply within the ocean however of their communities. PADI IDC Workers Teacher Tatiana Geloso, co-owner of Mare Nostrum Diving, a PADI Eco Middle, is a kind of folks. By way of her extraordinary work with Marevivo and the Guardian Dolphins program on Ustica Island, she has remodeled ocean training right into a motion, inspiring kids to attach with and defend the ocean that surrounds them.
For her dedication to marine conservation, training, and sustainability, Tatiana has been named a recipient of the PADI Ocean Torchbearer Award, an honor offered yearly to 4 PADI Professionals who display distinctive management in driving significant progress inside their communities. Her work exemplifies PADI’s Pillars of Change, advancing ocean conservation, fostering dive business sustainability, and creating constructive change for folks and humanity.
Tatiana’s mission is deeply private. From her house on Ustica Island, typically known as the “Black Pearl of the Mediterranean,” she introduces native kids to the island’s Marine Protected Space, fostering a tradition of stewardship that has taken root in each younger minds and the broader group. As an environmental educator for Delfini Guardiani dell’Isola (Guardian Dolphins of the Island), a Marevivo initiative supported by the MSC Basis, she has performed a pivotal position in educating hundreds of scholars throughout Italy’s smaller islands about marine conservation and sustainability.
PADI, in partnership with Luminox, is proud to acknowledge Tatiana’s unwavering dedication to defending the ocean — one scholar, one lesson, and one dive at a time.
Tatiana, you proceed to make a profound influence in your group. What are you most happy with while you replicate in your work as a conservationist, PADI Skilled, and advocate for Ustica Island?
“One of the vital rewarding facets of my work is incomes the belief of the area people. Many dad and mom on the island initially noticed scuba diving as a dangerous exercise; but, over time, they’ve come to belief me with their kids, permitting them to discover the underwater world. That shift is highly effective; it means they see the worth in what I educate.
“Past that, when divers go to my dive heart and respect the environmental accountability woven into our operations, or when journalists and researchers search my insights on marine conservation, it reinforces that the work I do has a broader influence. I as soon as had a nationwide TV host name me ‘The Sea Advocate of Ustica Island,’ and whereas it might have been mentioned in jest, the nickname caught!”
How has your collaboration with Marevivo and Ustica’s Marine Protected Space formed your method to conservation and training, and enabled you to combine these concepts into the native tradition?
“Working with Marevivo and the Marine Protected Space of Ustica has been transformational. Being formally acknowledged as an environmental educator gave me not solely the instruments to show but additionally the credibility to ascertain long-term relationships with the native faculty and group. It’s extra than simply working packages — it’s about being a task mannequin in day by day life.
“This partnership has additionally bolstered my perception that efficient conservation should be woven into the material of the group. I dwell right here year-round, sharing the identical challenges because the locals — our island empties in winter, missing important providers like a hospital or structured education. Due to that, my message about defending our house carries weight. Conservation isn’t only a lesson; it’s a lifestyle.”
How do you make sure that the teachings taught in your packages, resembling sustainable fishing or waste administration, create lasting habits?
“The actual take a look at of conservation training isn’t what occurs within the classroom; it’s what occurs in day by day life. I see it in small however significant moments. Once I run into kids on the pier, they proudly present me how they launch fish again into the water after recognizing the species. On the native market, distributors already know to not supply me plastic baggage. On the café, I’m solely served drinks in glass.
“Extra importantly, I see the subsequent era internalizing these values. A mom as soon as messaged me, overwhelmed with gratitude as a result of her son had organized a cleanup of the island’s deserted playground along with his pals. They didn’t ask for assist — they only did it. That’s once I know the teachings are sinking in.”
What would you say to PADI Professionals who wish to contain kids and native communities in conservation efforts?
“Educating the subsequent era is important if we wish lasting change, however it’s not one thing to take flippantly. Ardour for the ocean isn’t sufficient; you additionally must have a ardour for working with kids. Conservation training carries a accountability to information younger minds in a means that respects their perspective whereas gently difficult previous habits.
“That mentioned, even when direct training isn’t your power, you’ll be able to nonetheless be a robust position mannequin. Main by instance, whether or not by decreasing waste in your dive operation, supporting citizen science, or advocating for marine safety, has a ripple impact in any group.”
How do you see the Guardian Dolphins program evolving, and what position will it play in the way forward for marine conservation?
“I hope to proceed the Guardian Dolphins program for years to return, guaranteeing that extra kids on Ustica and past develop a long-lasting reference to the ocean. However my imaginative and prescient extends past this program; I wish to create a sustainable diving coaching initiative for younger people who focuses on Mediterranean marine conservation, and likewise develop extra coaching that equips these future PADI Professionals with the instruments to include marine conservation into their day by day work. It’s not about turning everybody into marine biologists, however about making conservation a pure extension of what we do as divers. I imagine that being a conservationist shouldn’t be a alternative; it needs to be a elementary a part of being a dive skilled.”
A Message to the World PADI Torchbearer Neighborhood
“If I might ask the PADI Torchbearer group to do one factor for conservation, it could be this: by no means miss a possibility to boost consciousness for ocean safety. The ocean wants greater than divers who like it; it wants divers who actively defend it. We have now extra entry to info and training than ever earlier than, which implies we even have a better accountability. You’ll be able to’t name your self a passionate diver with out being obsessed with defending our ocean planet.”
Tatiana Geloso’s unwavering dedication to conservation is a testomony to the facility of training, persistence, and grassroots motion. By way of her work on Ustica Island, she has not solely impressed the subsequent era of ocean stewards however has additionally demonstrated the profound influence one individual can have on a complete group. PADI is honored to acknowledge her as an Ocean Torchbearer, and we stay up for seeing the waves of change she continues to create.
