DEMA-Sponsored Educational Sessions from DEMA Show 2019 Now Available Online

Did you miss out on valuable educational opportunities provided as part of the DEMA-Sponsored Education Package? DEMA-Sponsored Education covers a wide spectrum of topics to expand your business and career. Select sessions from DEMA Show 2019 are now available for purchase from DEMA.org.  Learn more and purchase access to the recordings today!

REVIEW SESSIONS

Alert - NOAA Proposes Changes to Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) proposes to expand the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) boundary, update sanctuary-wide regulations, modify and establish new marine zones, update marine zone-specific regulations, and revise the sanctuary’s non-regulatory management plan. NOAA has issued a Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS) on FKNMS.

According to NOAA, the existing FKNMS Sanctuary regulations, marine zones, and management plan activities designed and implemented in the mid-1990s are no longer sufficient to ensure long-term resource protection and ecosystem function integrity into the future.

DEMA has been a supporter of the National Marine Sanctuaries since the 1990s and was heavily involved with the creation of FKNMS. DEMA has supported the reauthorization of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, testifying before congress in support of the Act and the need to permit access by non-consumptive activities such as recreational diving, reminding government and management that recreational divers, more than anyone else, see first-hand the conditions of reefs, and that diving is not an inherently “extractive” activity that depletes resources such as coral or reef fish.

Since the 1990s, DEMA has been the recreational diving community’s voice for the Sanctuary Programs and is now seeking your help in continuing to express the need to protect these valuable natural assets while maintaining diver access to the Sanctuary areas.

Please provide comments on the proposed Sanctuary changes by going to the Federal eRulemaking Portal, www.regulations.gov. Use docket number NOAA-NOS-2019-0094.

For those local to the Florida Keys and South Florida, the sanctuary will hold its final public meeting and accept oral comments on December 10:

Islander Resort
82100 Overseas Highway
Islamorada, Florida

Join us at Dive in Day at the Florida Capitol

Each year DEMA sponsors "Dive in Day" in Tallahassee, FL, giving local DEMA Members the unique opportunity to showcase their diving-related products and services, and promote issues that are important to the scuba diving industry. This year's Dive in Day is on January 21, 2020. 

Florida’s 160 legislators, the Governor and his staff, and hundreds of Florida visitors will be at the Capitol during the day. DEMA has reserved the courtyard and first floor of the Capitol building to give DEMA Members and Florida-based dive businesses an opportunity to showcase Florida’s recreational diving operators. 

In addition to displaying products and services, DEMA is asking the members of our Industry to meet with legislators to discuss issues relevant to the Florida diving industry. For those interested in bringing attention to issues critical to the Industry in Florida, on request, DEMA will arrange a time for you to meet with your state Senator or Representative and provide you with information that will help you discuss these important topics. You can take advantage of this opportunity and participate with DEMA’s Public Policy efforts in Florida, by calling Emily Bolde at (850) 201-5224 or by email at ebolde@lawfla.com. Meeting YOUR Representative or Senator can focus attention on a variety of issues that affect the scuba diving industry, such as shark finning, the future of the goliath grouper, spiny lobster, environmental issues, and others. DEMA will also distribute relevant information to legislators (and Capitol visitors) which include the size of the diving industry in Florida and its importance in jobs, tourism, and the economy with a focus on the economic benefit of Florida dive businesses and the protection of sharks and their vital role in the marine ecosystem. 

This year’s Dive in Day at the Capitol will be Tuesday January 21st, 2020. 

If you are interested in exhibiting, we suggest you bring simple and inexpensive table-top displays that include brochures, videos, product information, handouts and other materials to attract interest from the public and lawmakers. EXHIBIT SPACE IN THE CAPITOL BUILDING IS FREE but is limited, and available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

SPACE IS LIMITED! PLEASE RSVP BY CLOSE OF BUSINESS ON JANUARY 1, 2020. 

To RSVP or for more information about Dive in Day at the Capitol, please contact Emily Bolde, at ebolde@lawfla.com or (850) 201-5224 (office). We look forward to seeing you there! 

Amy Lee Honored as DEMA’s 2019 Wave Makers Award Recipient

** Announcement Made at the 2019 DEMA Awards Party **

The Diving Equipment and Marketing Association is pleased to announce that Amy Lee is the 2019 recipient of DEMA’s Wave Makers Award. The announcement was made at the DEMA Award’s Party on November 15, 2019. The celebration was held to honor the 2019 Wave Makers Award finalists and 2019 recipient, as well as to celebrate the careers of the 2019 Reaching Out Award Recipients.

The Wave Makers Award was first introduced in 2017 and aims to recognize professionals who have been working in the industry for five years or less and have made a significant contribution to the industry during that time. The Wave Makers Award encourages the Industry to support a culture that fosters innovative thinking and encourages engagement with the association and industry by new professionals.

The finalists for the 2019 Wave Makers Award included:

• Rosemary Ciotti, Adaptive Diving Association
• Mike Johnson, Solstice Productions
• Amy Lee, Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF)
• Nicole Zelek, Superdive Scuba

2019 DEMA Members selected Amy Lee as the 2019 Award recipient by viewing and voting for the finalist of their choice, based on the biographies and short videos that the finalists submitted. 

AMY LEE is REEF’s Trips Program and Communications Manager. Through all aspects of her work, Amy strives to merge her passions for diving, communication, science, and travel. Amy is always looking for ways to inspire new divers and young people interested in the oceans, and she strives to make ocean science accessible and fun.

In her role at REEF, she organizes, plans, and promotes trips to dive destinations world-wide through REEF’s citizen science Volunteer Fish Survey Program. In addition to managing this eco-diving travel program, she is a REEF Trip Leader, where she enthusiastically shares her passion for marine life and encourages participants to become engaged in ways that will make their diving truly count. She serves as one of REEF’s primary mentors to young professionals participating in the Marine Conservation Internship program. In her spare time, Amy has served as a contributing writer for several publications including: Alert Diver Magazine, Scuba Diving, Earth is Blue, and the 2nd edition of the popular Lionfish Cookbook.

Amy views diving as more than just a hobby, it’s a lifestyle—and she strongly believes that as an individual, you make a difference for our oceans.

DEMA congratulates Amy Lee for her hard work and passionate service to our Industry and looks forward to seeing the contributions she will continue to make throughout her career.