More than six million pounds of marine litter is estimated to enter the ocean each year. And scuba divers are battling harmful trash from beneath the surface – especially during September’s Debris Month of Action.

Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to join Project AWARE and thousands of volunteer divers globally to remove, report and prevent underwater debris. Why? Marine debris kills wildlife, destroys habitats and threatens our health and economy. And if divers don’t tackle this crisis from beneath the surface, who will?

Together, we can stop marine debris at the source. We do this by diving in, removing trash and reporting data on an ongoing basis. In 2012, scuba divers removed nearly 95,000 lbs of trash from our ocean. But we know we can do better. Every piece of trash reported gets us that much closer to local solutions and policy change.

So whether you grab a dive buddy or organize a group event, be sure you volunteer for Debris Month of Action this September.