Courtesy of Carrie Tsai
Name: Carrie Tsai
Location: Kenting, Taiwan
Dive Certification Level: PADI Course Director
Follow on Instagram: @carrie_tsai_taiwan; @ctdiverkenting
You can often find Carrie Tsai standing along the shoreline in Kenting, Taiwan, as she watches the sea with a familiarity that feels like friendship. As a PADI Course Director and cofounder of CTDiver, she’s become one of her country’s clearest voices for coral conservation, a role recently recognized through her PADI Ocean Torchbearer Award. But Tsai’s relationship with the reef is practical as much as it is personal. She studies it, she teaches about it and she keeps showing up to protect it.
Kenting’s waters are anything but ordinary. Subtropical currents and seasonal shifts mean the reef changes its mood throughout the year, and the area hosts a staggering variety of life, including more than 800 coral species and nudibranchs at every turn. Even what would be considered negative local impacts, like the warm water from a nearby power plant, haven’t erased the reef’s richness. If anything, the delicate balance made Tsai more determined. She saw vulnerability and beauty together, and she decided to act.
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Courtesy of Carrie Tsai
Her dive operation, CTDiver, grew from that determination. From the beginning, Tsai and her team tried to mesh running a successful dive center with being responsible stewards of the ocean. They became a PADI Eco Center and followed Green Fins guidelines to reduce their environmental footprint. When they first contacted Green Fins about joining in 2018, the nonprofit had not yet set up a local Taiwan office, so CTDiver started with self‑assessment tools. In 2023, they earned Green Fins’ digital certification, linking up with a global network of operators focused on cleaning up waste, reducing single‑use plastics and improving dive practices.
Tsai’s approach is deliberately methodical. In 2020, CTDiver began conducting Reef Check surveys twice a year and combined those surveys with regular ocean cleanups. That steady pattern of monitoring led to government agencies asking Tsai’s team to carry out coral surveys for official projects. The data collected by CTDiver now contributes to academic research as well. What started as a grassroots effort has become a reliable source of information that shapes policy and scientific understanding.
Related Reading: Leading the Wave in Sustainable Liveaboard Diving
Through teaching, Tsai’s impact multiplies. She created a PADI Distinctive Specialty Course aimed at coral awareness and the spectacular but delicate phenomenon of coral spawning that happens each year in Kenting. Rather than lecturing people into feeling guilty about their lack of reef education, her course teaches divers practical techniques to help reduce stress on corals and observe reefs responsibly.
Her goals go beyond cleanups and good diving habits. Tsai is working on expanding marine protected areas, supporting local fishermen by helping them switch to sustainable methods and strengthening public outreach so more people understand the importance of coral reefs. As a PADI Course Director, she’s also training new instructors to carry those values forward so the next generation of divers won’t see oceans as just playgrounds, but as ecosystems to protect.
Related Reading: Silfra Tectonic Diver Distinctive Specialty Course: What to Know
Courtesy of Carrie Tsai
Between routine surveys, a commitment to education, and a willingness to bring science, community, and policy together, Tsai’s love of the ocean is beyond evident. The PADI Ocean Torchbearer Award recognizes that kind of persistence. It’s not one single flashy achievement, but the ripple effect that comes from showing up again and again. Tsai’s work is exactly why she’s a Torchbearer.
In Kenting, those ripples are visible in more reliable monitoring data, better practices among local operators, and a growing appreciation for the fragile wonders beneath the waves. For Tsai, the Torchbearer Award is both an honor and a reminder to keep tending to the reefs she loves.
Fast Facts:
Carrie Tsai is a PADI Course Director and cofounder of CTDiver.
Since 2020, CTDiver has conducted Reef Check surveys twice a year that are reported back to the Taiwanese government and are used for academic research.
CTDiver is a PADI Eco Center and earned Green Fins certification in 2023.
Tsai created a PADI Distinctive Specialty Course that teaches coral awareness.
To help celebrate PADI's 60th anniversary year, Scuba Diving is featuring recipients of PADI's Ocean Torchbearer Award. Each awardee is a dive professional who demonstrates exceptional leadership and commitment to ocean conservation, sustainable dive industry practices, and community engagement. These individuals represent the spirit of the PADI Torchbearer movement—they’re divers using their connection to the ocean to inspire action and create positive change.
