PROFESSIONAL GROUPING OF THE CENTERS OF THE VAR: REUNIS AROUND PORT-CROS

22 professional diving centers located between Cavalaire and Carqueiranne are united in this group. What do they have in common? All dive in Port-Cros, and it is with them that the Park has drawn up the charter which, since 1994, has regulated diving on protected sites.

FOR LOVE OF A PLACE

Port-Cros is not a workplace like any other. And the twenty Centers that belong to the group have, from the start, worked in collaboration with the Park to put in place the famous charter. At the time, with the multiplication of the number of dives, the scientists working in the waters of Port-Cros began to judge the pressure difficult to accept, especially of course on the islet of Gabinière. It was therefore necessary to define rules, to accept compromises. As Stéphane Anger, from Sun Plongée, based in Port-Cros and born on the island, explains, “if we wanted to continue to be able to dive, we had to work with the Park. "And beyond the meetings, reflections on the rules to be put in place, they will give of their person, in particular by participating in the installation of the precious mooring buoys which prevent a massive deterioration of the seabed.

THE BIRTH OF THE CHARTER

The first charter of diving in the waters of the Park is signed in 1994 by the twenty or so establishments, all professionals, particularly involved. They commit themselves primarily, remember, to limit the number of visitors to the site, and to ensure that divers' behavior is respectful of the underwater environment. The charter imposes the diffusion of a pedagogical message with regard to their customers, and the limitation of the number of divers to 40. The formations are not authorized on the islet of Gabinière, the point of the Cross and that of the Vessel. Night dives are prohibited. They also undertake to draw the attention of their instructors and divers to the high sensitivity of the environment, the need to respect and strictly enforce the National Park regulations and the requirements of this charter, including the absolute prohibition of all feeding and any voluntary or involuntary contact with the substrate or species.

PUTTING YOUR EXPERIENCES

Since then, the members of the Group have continued to work together. Often informally, but by sharing their experiences, to offer their customers quality, harmonized services. And it is in Port-Cros that it happens, on the port, around the center of the child of the island and the Sun Bistro, place of life par excellence which welcomes divers. “This is what amazes our customers,” explains Stéphane Anger, “to see us share our meals, our inflating sessions… there is a conviviality that people do not expect to find between“ competing ”centers. But they have the same concerns in common: beyond the passion for diving and the pleasure of discovery, running businesses, sticking together. "And to face, concludes Stéphane, by the way, to the necessarily unfair competition of certain associative structures which want to do the same job as us without having the same economic constraints ..."