Azul Conservation was founded in 2016 by George Bevan, one of Conservation Divers Directors and Master Trainers. We are located on Little Corn Island just off the coast of the Caribbean side of Nicaragua.
Our marine conservation center is based out of Dolphin Dive, with whom we share a joint mission to protect the reefs around the island and promote environmental awareness. It is fully equipment with a lecture space with comfy chairs and bean bags, library, conservation equipment and office space with WiFi for research, data collation and independent research.
We teach courses to the standards set forth by Conservation Diver, a scientific diving accreditation body, that provides training and certifications related to marine research, protection, restoration, and conservation.
Conservation Diver was founded in 2015 out of a 8 year long reef conservation program at New Heaven Dive School on Koh Tao called NHRCP. The core program has been the foundation on which a refined marine conservation certifying body was developed, with a defined set of standards and procedures for execution.
Azul Conservation is staffed by Conservation Diver instructors who teach a wide array of different marine conservation diving courses. If you don’t know how to dive yet, many of our instructors are also PADI qualified and can train you up to Advanced Open Water so you can begin your conservation journey.
We are a small operation limited to only 4 students per day in high season and 8 in low season. Our student to instructor ratios therefore are never greater than 4:1.
All data taken by Azul Conservation is open resource and shared actively with Nicaragua’s academic body in the region, BICU (Bluefields, Indian & Caribbean University), with whom we have a institutional collaboration agreement in order to ‘strengthen conditions and capacities of the population for conservation and sustainable management of coastal ecosystems of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua’.
This partnership then forged the creation of the Marine Protection Alliance of Corn Islands, a body consisting of Azul Conservation, BICU, the municipal government, local leaders and dive operators that aims to:
- Promote research and development in marine science
- Fundraise for marine conservation activities
- Organise both scuba diving and marine conservation training for BICU faculty and students and well as other local Nicaraguans.
- Develop artificial reef sites
- Create a shared database for Ecological Monitoring and Citizen Science projects
- Give technical assistance for Policy Development and decision making
- Create scientific and environmental touristic offerings
In all that we do, Azul Conservation is driven to protect the marine ecosystems of Nicaragua. Through our programs we can facilitate research and data used for decision making and policy development, actively restore areas of the reef, educate locals and tourists alike about the importance of protecting the ocean and help to ensure the worlds oceans are still here for the enjoyment of generations to come.
