Top Tips to protect the ocean while diving!
Diving is an amazing sport that everyone who gets the chance should try but as its becoming more and more popular the chances of the reef and marine eco system becoming damaged increases. When diving, whether you are just learning or are a seasoned professional it’s important to follow these simple steps.
- Perfect your buoyancy: Marine life is very fragile, more so than it looks, that’s why it’s important to focus on your buoyancy from the start; it not only makes you a better diver but also preserves marine life and coral for future generations of divers.
- If you have been diving for many years or you are a professional diver, pass on your knowledge, tips and skills to newer, less experienced divers. You will not only be helping preserve the ocean you will be helping new divers become more aware.
- The age old diving saying goes ‘take only photos, leave only bubbles’ everything in the ocean is connected, so if you take a piece of coral, pick up a shell or grab a fish, it’s important not only to preserve the ocean for future divers but also for the future of the ocean and the world.
- Become a marine debris activist, a huge amount of waste ends up in the ocean, even in the deepest, darkest depths and it’s our responsibility to report and remove it when possible. If you see any debris during a dive, carefully pick it up, make sure you don’t hurt yourself, get entangled or damage the reef. If unsure ask your buddy, Dive Master or Instructor for help. If it is too heavy to lift without a lift bag why not suggest to your dive shop a dive clean up. Check out this video we made of one of our clean ups.
- Make responsible fish eating habits: the world is becoming more and more aware of the problems that over fishing can bring, if you are unsure of which fish is OK to eat why not check out this handy website to see if your favourite fish is being over fished or is OK to eat.
- Scuba divers are some of the strongest ocean advocates on the planet. Now, more than ever, divers like you are taking a stand. Speak out for conservation, share your underwater images, report environmental damage to authorities and campaign for change. Report sightings of marine life that is endangered, whether you are snorkeling or diving pop into your local dive center and see whether they have a database, even no sightings is important to record as it can show species depletion. In South East Asia we have Shark Guardian; a database that collects sightings of endangered marine life.
- If you’re diving on holiday do some research before you go and try to find a dive school that prides itself on being Eco-friendly, have a chat with them and see if there is any accommodation they would recommend on the basis that they are environmentally aware. If you are looking for yourself, try to look for places that recycle, try not to use plastic bottles and foam takeaway boxes for food as these are hard to recycle in some parts of the world or just aren’t recycable.
- Give back! The ocean plays a huge part in all our lives even if you don’t live near it, without it we wouldn’t exist. Give back what you can, whether it’s donating to a marine conservation charity, signing a petition against single use plastic, taking part in a beach clean-up or in putting information into marine species databases, it will all help towards saving our oceans, its creatures and the globe.
