Up until Covid it has vistor pace a 3 million a year. Open six days a week, that roughs out to about 10,000 people a day. That was a cluster. Despite a now mandatory 10 minute video, you could regularly see tourists standing on the reef. There was just not a real culture of "hey, that rock is alive, and you touching it is killing it" - people just didnt get it. So there is that.
Fortunately, there has been some recent laws passed about the type of sunscreen you can use - less toxic - supposedly. I never bother to truly dig into the science behing it- though I guess I'm qualified to do so. However, there are good people that made that happen in Hawaii - and now it is illegal to sell anything but reef safe products.
Hawaii also went to a reservation only system for Haunauma Bay (for visitors) that cuts it back to 1500 people a day, less than a 1/5th of what was out there before. That is likely to help - though two weeks ago I did a hike on the point and saw the same dumbassery going on on top of the reef. Can you really blame them though - David Attenburough was standing on the Great Barrier reef while filming Chasing Coral - stupid comes in at all levels.
Here is the good news. Haunamau Bay is a great place for tourists NOT to die, and they are mostly just killing the near shore reef. Near shore, there is a lot of sandy bottom surrounded by (now dead) reef. The algae grows on the dead reef and the fish and turtles come into shallow protected water and put on a show. No need for them to goto the outside of the reef where they are more likely to get in trouble and drown. But once you get to the outer reef where it is too deep to stand up, the coral is healthy - well at least it is alive and looks healthy. I suspect that once the reef is deep enough not to get stood on by the people that either don't get it or don't care, that that reef is mostly safe from the daily dumbassery.
For divers - you have to find the channel and get out there to get a good dive. Ask a lifeguard, but be aware that incoming and outgoing tides can make this protected area a real tough dive if you don't pay any attention to the tides. I'd say the average diver is probably a little more aware that coral is alive and you shouldn't kick, touch it, though as an operator I've seen a lot of stupid. You educate where you can while trying to avoid the 1 star review for "they yelled at me". Sigh, we try.
Commerical acitivy there has been shut down since Covid, doubt it will come back. So the very few divers that do get there can probably expect a good dive in uncrowded conditions. Reservations open up 2 days before at 7am sharp and are sold out in minutes - plan ahead.
Regarding it being dead in the 90's - I suspect you just didn't get far enough out into the bay. I got to Hawaii and 2000 and the shore diving was spectacular - once you got past the near shore dead reef. Even then it was clear that there was no way the near shore reef could survive people crawling all over it. Funny, I do remember that in the narrow cracks in the reef where you couldn't get a hand or fin tip, you could still see live coral.
PS with the advent of good scooters for under $2k, I'd make this a scooter dive if you are planning it. Now I want to go, lol.
