Author Archives: Charlie

About Charlie

PADI Instructor and tropical marine life as special interest. Charlie love diving and to take care of divers and have a with a passion for the underwater world.

Souvenirs of the ocean

Think twice when you buy souvenirs on you holiday to bring home to friends and family.

That dried sea horse you are holding in your hand once had a life on the reef, was a part of a perfect functional Eco system and now it’s an endangered species. It is as well one of the most beautiful creatures we as dive guides can show our guest here at Quo Vadis.

The colourful cone shell you are thinking of buying to your mum once had tenant, someone living in there and now we barely ever see them while diving. The sea star they sell in the souvenirs shop next to your hotel once was a part of the ocean floor and a highlight for snorkelers in the shallow waters. It can even be someones lunch.

When buying these products you create a demand for them. Don’t buy products that exploit unsustainable marine creatures. Corals may look beautiful on a piece of jewellery but take my word for it, they look more stunning where they belong on the reef and they play an important role in the Eco system.

What should we bring?

We should bring pictures & stories up from the ocean. Then we can share it and show what other people are missing out on when they are spending all that precious time up at the surface.

You can start by sharing this post about where all the marine creatures belongs!

Who can change the world?

Greenpeace? Sea Shepard? PADI Project Aware? Oceana? Ocean Defender? You? Me? Even the smallest action can do a great impact on our future. That is, if we do it together.

Did you know that 9.1 million tons of plastic will end up in the ocean every year? And that all this plastic contributes to habitat destruction which entangles and kills tens of thousands of marine animals each year? It´s estimated that in 2025 it will rise up to 150 million metric tons. I cannot even grasp that number.

Here are a few things you can do to help:

Support the organisation that fights for the future of the oceans
All people behind the organisations mentioned above are true heroes. Its people like you, like me who got tired of us destroying our planet and decided to take action. We can talk about their actions, we can like it, share it, spread it encourage and join them, but don’t forget to volunteer, to help out and also consider to give financial support. Find your local organisation and ask them how you can help.

Reduce your plastic usage
To limit your impact, carry a reusable water bottle, store food in non-disposable containers, bring your own bag when shopping, and recycle whenever possible. And never forget: everything we through away will eventually end up in the ocean. Plastic dissolves in the water and will then wander from the smallest creature to the ocean giants and yes it will end up in the food we eat as well.

Clean up after yourself and others
Imaging if every human would spend 5 minutes per day to pick up garbage and recycle. We are approximately 7.4 billion people, now multiple that by five and we would have 37 billion minutes every day of erasing all the trash in our world. That is what I call a big change for the better, right?

Never stop fighting. Wherever we are we can always clean the nature and spread the green message. Soon Quo Vadis Dive Resort will arrange a beach clean-up here in Moalboal and if you happen to be around you are more than welcome to join. More information will follow, stay tuned!

/Charlie and Caroline

5 awesome facts about the seahorse

1. Did you know that the Latin family name of the sea horse, hippocampus, translates to horse seamonster? They sure don’t look very scary to me. Their size are ranging from tiny 1.5 cm up to 35 cm. 2.

2. They don’t have any stomach and because of the missing stomach these horses needs to eat all the time. To be exact they need to find at least 3000 tiny shrimps every day or they would die of starvation.

3. The male seahorse really takes his daddy role very serious. In this relationship the male are the one to carry all eggs in his pouch. Of all the eggs only one of thousand survives to an adult size. Some studies shows that they are extremely faithful to each other. Once they find a sea horse partner in their taste they stick with each other for the rest of their life. How romantic!

4. To great exercise can kill this little creatures so mostly they are sitting on the same coral relaxing and eating. Except to gain too much weight the only thing this guys need to worry about is the hungry crabs. If the dwarf sea horse needs to run from the crab he faces a problem, since his horse powers only can create a top speed of 1.5 meter per hour…

5. The seahorse are endangered by over fishing and habitat destruction. The Chinese medicine market has a huge responsibility since they convinced the chines people that seahorses cure impotence, wheezing and pain. Which has non-scientific proof. 20 million seahorses are estimated to been taken from the sea by this reason every year.

The fishing of the endangered seahorse has been controlled by CITES since 2004. CITES is a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Sadly enough Norway, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia didn’t sign the law. Support CITES and other ocean fighters that supports our ocean with knowledge among the local people.

Denise’s Pygmy Seahorse at the divesite Umbrella

Meet Caroline

My name is Caroline Sandstedt and I will also be blogging here together with Charlie, so I want to give you a chance to get to know me a little. So who am I? I’m the girl who got addicted to scuba diving, I’m always the one with the loudest laugh and the largest suit case. I grew up in Sweden but since I have been old enough to travel I have not stayed put since. I have tried a lot of different jobs in my 26 years; I’ve been working as a waitress, barista, copywriter, art hostess, nanny, telemarketer and saleswomen. But it turned out all I ever wanted to do was to work with scuba diving.

I started diving 11 years ago but it took a little bit longer for me to fall in love with this world and lifestyle. When I was 22 I travelled to Thailand and there the underwater beauty got to me and I quickly worked my way up from Open Water diver to Advanced Open Water then to Rescue Diver and then I was stuck. Like really, really stuck. Have you ever heard about the dive virus? Whatever it is, I caught it and now I work as an instructor and dive center manager at Quo Vadis Dive Resort and my life is complete.

I always tell my friends: if you want to be really good at something you have to truly love what you do. And I live as I learn. Going from an office job in Sweden to practice my passion in the warm tropics was a life changer and a life saver.

I’m in love with the ocean and being an Dive Instructor was the most obvious choice, giving me the chance to spend countless hours in the place I love the most, teaching people how to enjoy the colourful life under water and to show them how to take care of it so we can enjoy it’s magnificent beauty in the future.

So if you want to learn how to dive and if you want to be inspired, I’m definitely up for the task. Make you holiday stand out and I can promise you an experience you will always remember. I’m hoping to see you underwater soon!

Meet Charlie

My name is Charlie, as my blue eyes and blond hair might tell you, I’m from northern Europe, Sweden in fact. Since I graduated school I’ve been working abroad with the ocean as my office. I been working as dive guide since 2013 in Thailand, but in the end of last year I decided that I was ready to share my passion about the blue world to others. So I did my instructor course and that was one of the best decisions of my life.

To teach diving and to feel the excitement among the students when we finally splash down in the water, slowly descending to my favourite part of our world. Seeing the huge smile behind the regulator causing a minor mask-leak when they finally manage one of the tasks underwater and to watch them starting to share my passion is the best feeling in the world. It’s truly a privilege to be able to work with this.

When I’m not teaching or guiding my absolute favourite activity is to photograph the stunning marine life around me. If I ever stays dry on a day off, I love to explore the nature and to catch the adventures around me.

Come by for a chat. It’s very easy to find me, I’m the guy with the huge smile and dreadlocks!

Why do I blog?

It all started off when I met a magnificent Green turtle many years ago. The beautiful creature changed me so drastic that I after that moment knew that the ocean was my future. The big adventure started and I was off to the wonderful world. I was finally a part of the adventures that I was reading about as a child.

The peaceful ocean calms me down. It makes me humble by showing it’s glory and what’s worth dying for. Each time I enter the ocean, I can hear it whisper. One day I couldn’t just ignore the whispers so I decided to give the ocean a voice that could touch people.

I gives the ocean a story from my eyes. I will fight to inspire all of us, to a better world.

Blog Quo Vadis Dive Resort Moalboal, Cebu, Philippines

Living and Diving in Paradise