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How to Be More Aware Of Your Environment as a Diver
There are many signs underwater that show environmental damage. It is important for divers to become environmentally conscious because it gives them a great opportunity to start raising awareness of the various issues that they encounter.
Here are tips on how you can become an environmentally conscious diver:
How to Be More Aware Of Your Environment as a Diver
There are many signs underwater that show environmental damage. It is important for divers to become environmentally conscious because it gives them a great opportunity to start raising awareness of the various issues that they encounter.
Here are tips on how you can become an environmentally conscious diver:
- Practice good buoyancy – When you position yourself well in the water, you reduce your risk of actually damaging the reef accidentally. It also reduces your risk of grabbing onto something to stabilize yourself. You must practice good buoyancy.
- Operator selection – It is important for you to look for responsible operators when going diving. It is important to avoid divers who are not environmentally conscious and to increase the demand for eco-conscious and sustainable operators.
- No feeding fish – Fish feeding is a practice that is found mainly in Southeast Asia. It may look harmless but the ecological implications are serious. The fish usually end up relying on these handouts and therefore do not feed on the various natural food sources available to them.
- Don’t wear gloves – this is a great measure because when you feel unprotected, the likelihood of touching the reef is reduced. If you will be holding onto a mooring line during your descent and are worried about hydroids, then simply use one glove and then put it away until you are ready to ascend.
- Keep an eye on your waste – Make sure that boat you are on has trashcans that have lids on them as well as ashtrays to avoid candy wrappers, plastic bottles, cigarette butts, masking tape and the like from flying off into the ocean.
- Give that eco-friendly guide a tip – Since you usually give a tip anyway, this becomes a fantastic opportunity to reward and encourage eco-friendly behavior including dive briefs that are focused on the environment.
- Refuse to eat reef fish – One of the major threats to our reefs is overfishing. Refuse to eat fish like the snapper, parrotfish and grouper which are not sustainable options.
- Sustainable shopping – When you begin to purchase souvenirs, do not buy ocean products and shells. Those shells belong to mollusks who have a vital role in keeping reefs healthy.
- Sunscreen – You do want to protect your skin, but putting on too much sunscreen inadvertently causes reef damage. This is because oxybenzone, the ingredient used in sunscreen, has been proven to kill coral. It also causes coral bleaching. There are other sunscreens that do not use this chemical as an ingredient. Try and get those.
