Reef Rescuers "Behind The Scenes"

“Ok, I’m going in!" said Emile, standing at the side of the boat, still fully clad on with his black t-shirt and cargo shorts.

Strapping on his GoPro camera, the lanky chap plunged into the deep sea, legs first.

“SPLASH!”

White bubbles appeared followed by the sight of blonde hair. He emerged to catch his breathe.

“Over there!” I pointed towards the group of divers participating in the underwater cleanup up.

They were all ready to descend to the bottom of the sea in a mission to collect as many rubbish as possible to mark the longest underwater cleanup in the book of Guinness World Record.

Emile swam towards them and circled the group of 5 divers, filming using GoPro.

Few minutes after they disappeared into the blue, Emile flashed a smile. A look of content. He got the shot he wanted.

Before he climbed back to the boat with the rest of the media team, I lowered down the microphone to him while he was still in the water.

“Explain to us what just happened there?” I asked.

“Well I saw the group of divers there and I thought I’ll just go to them to film up close using my trusted GoPro camera” said the British producer filming his documentary “Reef Rescuer” for Discovery channel.

It’s a 30-minutes exclusive programme featuring the challenges of 134 divers from across the world cleaning up the reefs of Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, Sabah for a record of 168 hours non-stop feat.

As a result of that, more than 3 tonnes of rubbish were collected and a cleaner ocean for all.

“What will the viewers expect from this programme?” I went on further as he still tries to stay afloat. (don't worry, he's a good swimmer)

"Wow what a question to ask in this circumstance!" he said laughingly while keeping his head above the water.

I simply smiled and told him it would look good on TV.

"Well viewers will be able to see an action-packed, adrenaline pumping show featuring everyone involved in making this Guinness World Record a success. From the authorities, police, marine to the divers and volunteers. All of them have a part to play." said Emile.

"Ok can I come up now?" he asked after I was done asking him questions.

Except that there was one problem. There was no stairs or rope to climb back to boat! We all had to pull him back up the boat. Well that was a bit embarrassing. Moral of the story: make sure there's a way to climb up the boat before jumping into the sea!

From the way he films, I sensed that it would be quite an awesome documentary as most of his footages captures the breathtaking moments where divers plunged into the deep blue sea, in a mission to clean up the reefs.

And most of the time he is seen filming by using only a GoPro, a small sized camera for outdoor and extreme sports purposes, which he calls his best friend.

Back on land, Emile showed me some of his previous works with Discovery. The latest documentary was titled "Abalone Wars" about a group of Australian fishermen risking their lives to harvest the much sought after seafood from the ocean. However danger awaits them in the form of the great white shark!

Watching snippets of the show on his laptop gave me a sense of awe. I wonder how will the project that he is currently working on "Reef Rescuers" will turn out eventually. Must be as good as the previous ones!

"Well, to know more you just have to see it yourself!" he simply said.

In my heart, I knew nothing beats experiencing it first hand cleaning up the corals. Not an easy task to be diving non-stop to pick up rubbish from the sea bed, day and night. In order to succeed the attempt every diver had to pick up at least one rubbish. Every rubbish collected was a victory.

However for me, it was more saddening to see so many man-made rubbish being thrown into the sea. Plastic bottles and fishing nets among those commonly pick up rubbish by the divers. Not to mention there were lots of domestic wastes and even diapers!

Apart from covering the event for Astro Awani, I was also given the chance to dive alongside with the divers and see how hard/easy picking up these rubbishes was.

True enough, it was no easy task. With oxygen tank limit to only 60 minutes per dive, one must collect as much rubbish as possible using their mesh bags. Some divers had to struggle to cut free the massive entangled nets what were choking the reefs.

Since it was a non-stop 168 hours diving feat, divers were needed to collect rubbish underwater in the midnight right up to sunrise, testing their endurance, not to mention sight diving at night in the dark!

That is something worth watching.

"Reef rescuers" will be aired on Discovery 30 May 2013 on astro channel 551.

Astro Awani was the official media covering Astro Kasih Longest Underwater Cleanup from 6 to 13 April 2013.

Emile Guertin who is currently based in Singapore is the executive producer of "Reef Rescuer" - sporting a GoPro camera at all times and a dry sense of humour.