How a Landlocked Dive Club Is Preparing to Play Its Part in Marine Conservation.
You don’t need to live by the sea to care about the sea, and our landlocked dive club’s marine conservation efforts prove exactly that. At CADSAC, despite being miles from the nearest harbour, we’ve been asking ourselves an important question:
What can a landlocked dive club realistically do to protect the waters we love to dive in?
When we decided to become a Marine Champion club, we weren’t trying to change the world. We didn’t plan to launch a huge environmental campaign. Our aim was simply to bring more awareness and thoughtfulness to our diving and explore small, practical ways to contribute.
But something surprising happened as soon as we started. Our members rallied behind the idea, enthusiastically and wholeheartedly in greater numbers than we ever expected.
A partnership rooted in shared responsibility
Soon after becoming a Marine Champion, we reached out to Keith, one of our members who is also part of the Maritime Volunteer Society (MVS), an organisation that plays a quiet yet essential role in supporting the UK’s maritime environment and waterways.
We had a couple of calls over Teams and discussed the Marine Champion initiatives BSAC is backing, and Keith told us more about the MVS, its non-political stance, and the history behind its work. One of the most surprising things we learned is that the Crown Estate covers the seabed around our coastline. Every river, brook, canal, lake, and estuary ultimately connects with or feeds into parts of the Crown Estate. And while the MVS has no political alignment, it very much aligns itself with the responsibility of helping to protect those waters.
That shared sense of responsibility made our conversations feel natural from the start. When we described our desire to introduce more conservation-focused diving, not in a grand way, but in an achievable, grassroots way, the MVS were immediately supportive.
More than supportive, in fact. They were thrilled. Because organisations like the MVS know that real progress comes from networks of people and clubs who are willing to take action, however small.
They’ve volunteered their time, their equipment (including a boat for surface cover), and the expertise of their members to help us plan, prepare, and run our first practise river clean. We hope this session will become a blueprint for future clean-ups. And we plan to run further practise sessions so every club member who wants the training can access it.
A practise clean-up with purpose
On 30th November, CADSAC and the MVS will be running our first practise river clean-up training session at Cransley Reservoir in Northamptonshire. This isn’t a full clean-up operation. Not yet.
It’s about learning the fundamentals:
- How to run a safe, coordinated clean-up dive
- How to assign and manage roles such as divers, lookouts, supervisors, boat cover, and bank support
- How to assess risk in an inland environment
- And how to prepare our club for future conservation-focused dives
Think of it as building the scaffolding for the work we hope to do in the future.
We posted a flyer to our CADServation WhatsApp group and shared our plans at our weekly club meeting, then quietly hoped that maybe a handful of members would be interested.
A club that stepped up without hesitation
We explained we only had space for four divers on this first training day. And minutes after the event booking page went live, the volunteers came forward. Everyone was interested. People who couldn’t be in the water offered to help on land. Experienced divers wanted to learn new skills. Every slot and more was snapped up immediately.
For a club without easy coastal access, it was a reminder that passion for the ocean isn’t defined by geography. It’s defined by connection.
Why this matters
The more we talk to organisations like the MVS, the clearer it becomes that there is a huge, untapped appetite for coordinated conservation work across the UK diving community. And clubs like ours can play an important role.
Partnerships are how real change starts. Whether that’s through local clubs, national organisations, environmental bodies, or volunteer networks. Each brings something unique. And together, they create momentum. Our upcoming practise clean-up is just one small piece of that wider network, but it’s a meaningful one.
Looking ahead
We know we’re not going to transform the ocean, or rid our rivers of pollution.
But small actions matter. Small teams matter. Clubs like ours matter.
On 30th November, when we gather with the MVS to take our first training steps into clean-up diving, we’ll be doing more than learning new skills. We’ll be continuing a long tradition of community responsibility that has quietly been part of CADSAC’s spirit for decades.
And if the enthusiasm of our members is anything to go by, this is just the beginning.
Because even from the middle of the country, the call to protect our waters reaches us, and we’re ready to answer it.