How to become a responsible scuba diver?

This blog is a guest post written by Myryame from Divezone.net. The author is a travel blogger also passionate by scuba diving and the ocean. We hope that you will enjoy this article.

When I first decided to start writing about responsible scuba diving on Divezone.net, I could only count a few other dive bloggers that had done the same. Now, about a year later, there’s plenty of diver and travel bloggers discussing the importance of ethical, eco-friendly and responsible travel. I love to see all the initiatives, the discussions and the clean up dives going on! So let’s keep surfing on this amazing wave of positive evolution cause if you’re reading this, chances are that you want to be part of it!

Diving responsibly is actually simple and that’s what we should have always done. Indeed, we need to go beyond the “diving for the gram” mentality and get back to our passion for the underwater world, the adrenaline and the discoveries that first lead us there. Plus, we now have the scientific knowledge that tells us how we harm the underwater world, and thus how to avoid doing so. This article only highlights the top best habits to adopt to be an environmentally friendly and responsible diver. Of course, there might be more ways, and perhaps you are already contributing… if it’s the case, please drop us a few lines in the comment section to share your story with us!

Beautiful coral reef with sea anemones and clownfish polluted with plastic bag – environmental protection concept

A Responsible Diver collects rubbish while diving

You might think that the ocean is so vast and that one diver collecting a few pieces of plastic on its dive won’t change much… But what if it does ? Small ripples go a long way… Not only will you have taken action, but you might as well inspire others to do the same, so this might become a many people action… And many will influence many more!

How to collect rubbish while diving? It’s simple, bring a reusable light fabric bag or a mesh bag with you on the dive and collect as much trash as you can! Plastic bags, aluminium cans, fishing lines, plastic bottles and other debris are easy to pick-up and they, unfortunately, are everywhere on the seabed. Indeed, the plastic and aluminium pollution is said to be critical in Southeast Asian destinations. Scuba diving in Indonesia, Thailand or the Philippines is the dream of many, and it’s okay, but let’s help the sea life and the reefs to survive by collecting as much trash as we can while making bubbles.

Moreover, when you are planning your next trip you could be looking at different dive centers, and while you do so you could stumble on one that has a clean-up dive planned! Indeed, more and more dive centers take on them the initiative to do a little playground clean-up just like they did at Bucket List Diver lately! We even talked about it on Divezone.net’s Facebook page , in case you missed it!

Leave nothing but bubbles

It’s definitely cliché… but I still think we have not said it enough. Indeed, the time when we were ignorant about our impact on the marine life is long gone. Now, we know that touching is harming, that collecting is damaging and that stepping is destroying. In other words, it’s your responsibility to be a good diver, aware of its environment and inspire others to do the same. Concrete examples of how to be a responsible diver are numerous, here’s a quick list of the most obvious ones:

• Always choose smaller and more ethical dive centers to dive with.
• Wear only reef-safe sunscreen, or no sunscreen, when going in the water to swim, snorkel or dive.
• Choose dive sites in respect to your skills. This insures that you will be in control of you movements and buoyancy, meaning that you will reduce the risk to hit the reef, step on it or hang on it.
• Never grab, stress or touch the corals or the sea life. Capturing images of those magical moments should be enough!
• Other ways to be a responsible diver is simply to be a responsible and eco-friendly human while wearing your traveling shoes! Indeed, reduce, reuse and recycle are the words to remember even when on vacation. Simple tips are to carry a reusable bag, to use no straws, to carry your own water bottle and fill it up in restaurants, hotels or else as much as you can, etc.