▷ Avoid wearing sunscreen as it can block sunlight from reaching corals. Use clothing as physical barriers from the sun.
▷ Learn about local marine life and environmental concerns to ensure that….
▷ Keep safety of yourself and your dive buddy as the priority. Medical issues cause stress to ourselves, and are often costly in resources.
▷ Be aware of where your body is in space, and how it is affecting what is around you.
▷ Use butterfly kicks and keep your fins raised above your torso in a “head down, feet up” position to avoid stirring up sediment, which also deposits on top of corals and prevents them from receiving sunlight.
▷ Avoid accidentally kicking or scraping coral, sponges, or other fragile life-forms.
▷ Be sure not to kick or bump into other divers around you. This can cause a shock for the other diver, and they may bump into sea life or reach for something to hold onto, causing unnecessary stress. Stress underwater can narrow the diver’s awareness of the environment, leading not only to accidental damage to the environment, but also to potentially dangerous situations.
▷ Be sure to perform a weight check before a dive to ensure that over-weighting does not lead to scraping the bottom surface, and under-weighting does not lead to using the environment to pull oneself down.
▷ Maintain a distance of 1 meter (3 feet) above the reef at all times to ensure that no harm is cause to the fragile life forms.
▷ Do not hold onto the reef for support or buoyancy control.
▷ Never touch sea creatures. Though it may look like a sturdy rock, coral is a very fragile creature that grows and lives for hundreds of years. Touching a coral exposes it to diseases and infection, and can severely damage the animal following a misguided, even if curious touch. Likewise, stingrays have an incredibly sensitive skin that can easily be scarred and also exposed to disease when human attempt to touch them. Sea turtles, octopi, dolphins, pufferfish all experience significantly deleterious and unnecessary stress when forced to interact with humans. Animals and wildlife are not here for our entertainment.
▷ Do not take creatures, even if dead or broken, from the marine environment. The marine ecosystems have ways of restoring their losses through ancient natural processes.
▷ Do not take back souvenirs from wrecks. This can cause premature aging and significant loss of educational value and preservation of these historical heritage sites.
▷ Do not spearfish with recreational scuba equipment. This is an unfair advantage given to humans. It reduces the safe zones to which hunted fish may retreat stress and often results in sever overfishing and unequally balanced food chains and ecosystems.
▷ Avoid dive shops that feed fish or “chum” to attract marine life. This causes unnatural dependency and changes in behavior to the fed populations, sometimes resulting in more aggressive behavior both within and among populations.
▷ Search dive operators that have short boat rides and practice safe disposal of fuel.
▷ Boats that use buoy moorings or avoid the use of anchors prevent repeated disturbance of the marine floor.
▷ Boats that avoid shallow waters reduce the dangers of sea life being damaged by propellors.
▷ Be mindful of the trash you create, and where your sewage is draining. Search for hostels and hotels that practice eco-friendly water usage, energy consumptions, and waste disposal.
▷ Learn about local customs and norms to avoid unintentionally causing tension. Search for local dive shops and professionals, and support community-based companies and vendors.
▷ Support Marine Protected Areas by paying associated fees. These help keep waters safe, clean, and healthy and protects the wellbeing and sustainability of the marine life that inhabit the MPAs.
▷ Pick up trash while you are diving, participate in beach cleanups, or casually pick up trash anywhere you walk to prevent it from flowing into the oceans.
▷ Advocate for the beloved wildlife we dive to see, and keep them in your hearts.
▷ Consider your consumption of plastic goods, resources used on shipping or trade, usage of plastic products, energy use, and waste removal practices wherever you may be living.
▷ Financially support conservation movements.
▷ Participate in citizen science while diving. The scientific community needs you!
▷ Share what you’ve seen and experienced! The beauty and wonder of the ocean is meant to be shared.
