Thank you to GARMIN for your support — your initiative has helped make our oceans a better place! (Please remember to watch in HD~~~)
【Garmin】Born to Explore the Blue Ocean - Chaojing 2018
The ocean, in all its many moods, has coexisted with humanity across countless centuries. Silent, yet quietly bearing everything we have placed upon it.
Taiwan — a nation that proudly calls itself a people of the sea — has long been shackled by a mindset that kept its people from the water, leaving the public's understanding of the ocean limited to the names of dishes on a dinner table.
"Fishing village revitalization" is a slogan, and a banner that divers often raise high. But how many people have truly sat down with fishing communities? Many of the elderly women in these villages have been pushed by hardship into circumstances not of their choosing. Even as the government promotes local tourism, it still too often takes the easy route — organizing seafood festivals as a convenient shortcut. Fishing village revitalization becomes, once again, a missing piece in a lost industrial puzzle.
We chose a different way to contribute. Some invested their life savings to purchase equipment and renovate the base. Some gave up their days off to come and lend a hand. Some set aside their daily work to help keep things running. Profit was never our ultimate goal.
Beyond handing over scuba tank operations to local people, we have also been actively nurturing young locals to become dive instructors in the future. Who could possibly have a deeper connection to these waters than young people who grew up along this very stretch of coastline?
All of this began long before the marine protected area was ever officially designated. Every approach, every collaboration has required time, communication, and friction. And yet the criticism and provocation of online cynics can never be fully silenced. All we can do is turn around and keep giving — keep working — until we collapse on the couch and wake to greet the next day's sunrise. Because what we started with was an ideal, and what we carry now is a responsibility.
Only when you roll up your sleeves and do it yourself will you understand how hard it truly is. The ocean grows more beautiful because of the change we bring. .................... We will continue to document through our lens the story of the young people of this local fishing village — how they take concrete action to participate in a community transformation with no outside resources, reshaping not only their own life plans, but also their families and the ocean that raised them. We hope to inspire more people to join us. The ocean changes — because we dive.
