Save The Reefs From Sunscreen....

[TMHeimer]

Most of the sunscreen comes not from the divers who put on wet suits or Lycra but from folks on the beaches and recreational boats. Divers make no difference.

Divers, however, pee into water and this contaminates Ocean with Caffeine, Prozac, Ibuprofen, Naproxen, and who knows what else.

Here's another one I agree with, despite my total lack of knowledge. Well, about the beach sunscreen (ever see a crowded Jones Beach on Long Island in July?)-- not about the pee. Well, maybe even the pee. I pee all the time, and it's especially easy if the water is warm enough (like now in Mississippi) to wear the shorty! Man I'm killing the reefs--er, mud, sludge, muck, rotten oysters, river runoff from LA & AL.

Should add that the need for sunscreen does very much vary with the individual. My brother has darker skin and needs very little. There may be oh, 25 days a YEAR I don't put it on--7 months of that in Nova Scotia. Beats skin cancer (I mentioned I'm very prone). It has to be totally cloudy or raining for me to risk going without. And I hate the stuff.

Some good facts from Wookie. I like the idea of don't wear sunscreen that washes off (most don't he says) and don't get too close to the reef (everybody says).

 

[tarponchik]

Regarding peeing into water--we just do not know. The effects of all those drugs humans eat on marine life have not been studied yet. But I can point finger at another suspect: shampoo. Ever seen chicks on the beach who flick their hair? They use tons of shampoo, sometimes washing their hair twice a day. This shampoo goes into drain in the shower then it goes...right, eventually it goes into the ocean. And modern synthetic detergents like PEG derivatives do not degrade easily, nor do they precipitate as calcium salts like good old soap cause they are non-ionic.

But again, as a diver, I do not use shampoo when I visit coral reefs. What's the point if I spend 4 hrs per day underwater? So think of all those resorts along Seven Mile Beach, and think of cruise ships--they must be the killers.

 

[TMHeimer]

You quite probably are right. I guess one would have to be well versed in how any kind of dirty/soapy water is treated after it hits the sewer system (or septic field if in the boonies). I shampoo every night, otherwise my hair/scalp gets really oily and uncomfortable. There are many many things we do that we really don't have to do that undoubtedly cause harm to the oceans and to the whole environment. They say that a lot of soaps/laundry soaps nowadays don't contain the bad stuff they did decades ago. Only those in the know have any real ideas about these things. Like Joe Average trying to figure where every penny of taxes goes.

 

[tarponchik]

Well, this is bad stuff vs, very bad stuff. For example, once they've learned that alkylbenzenesulfonates with linear hydrocarbon chain degrade much faster than similar detergents with branched chain they stopped making the branched ones. But the linear ones still do not degrade instantly. And most studies were done in fresh water with the goal to save lakes and rivers, not the ocean. So again I do not know but I strongly suspect all this stuff kills sea organisms by damaging cell membranes. There must be something in human presence that kills the reefs. I've seen this everywhere. In Bonaire the further away from Kralendijk the better the reefs are; in Curacao the further away from Willemstad the better the reefs are; and in Hawaii the further away from Kona the better the reefs are. And I also suspect this is not because of divers like myself who put a drop of sunscreen on their noses.

 

[lermontov]

I think its a great idea we can smear it on the fishing nets before they drag them along

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

With my complexion and family history, I have, for many years, used the long sleeve shirt/long pants/hat/Stand in the shade approach (but shade is not always possible). But, your face/ears/neck still need sunscreen (reflections off of the water are almost as bad as direct sun) and the backs of your hands and tops of your feet. This is still a tiny amount compared with covering your torso, arms and legs.

As Wookie says, I use waterproof sunscreen (who would use anything else for diving?) And, I am always wearing a 3 mil so never any worry about rubbing on the reef.

So, I don't see a need to change what I am doing at this point.

I would rather take the extra cost of the "reef safe" screens and contribute it to an organization working to solve the real problems threatening the reefs. Wait, I already do that . . .

 

[John C. Ratliff]

i have found this artical on Google Scholar about sunscreens and their effects on reefs.

http://crawl.prod.proquest.com.s3.amazonaws.com/fpcache/f19e1744f8b75824e027a2d5ec0b618a.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJF7V7KNV2KKY2NUQ&Expires=1458769381&Signature=h/DqI5fQhWHquLKbz9A1oYsk4zM=

Sunscreens Cause Coral Bleaching by Promoting Viral Infections - ProQuest

SeaRat

 

[The Chairman]

Deodorant! You guys forgot about deodorant!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Deodorant! You guys forgot about deodorant!

Could've used it on my recent sea lion dive at Hornby ... Gawd those things stank ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)