Bull Sharks Seen While Scuba Diving Near Pattaya Thailand
27/01/2022
World Ocean Day
30/05/2022
How To Become an Eco-Friendly Diver
As divers, we have the incredible chance to see our world in a way that others do not, we are naturally eco-conscious so why not be an Eco-Friendly Diver? There is always space for improvement. Scuba divers frequently experience firsthand how much pollution and climate change caused by humans are impacting the oceans, and it is our job to assist wherever and whenever we can.So, what are the greatest strategies to become an environmentally conscious diver? The following pointers should help you figure out what you're looking for.
Choosing a Dive Shop / Operator that tries
It's always thrilling to organize a diving trip, but the most important thing to remember is to always select a trustworthy company. It's critical to do your homework since there are a number of dive operators and scuba tour groups out there who aren't looking out for the ocean's best interests (carelessly dropping anchors, bad safety protocols, polluting dive sites, etc).So how can you tell who is ECO-Friendly?
Start by looking at the dive company website and look for signs they support and follow guidelines from eco-conscious organizations. Official PADI Dive Centres and Resorts must undergo and abide by strict, thorough regulations so tracking down an official PADI dive center would be the best place to start. You can do this by using a search engine and looking for PADI divers in “insert your chosen destination”
You should also look at their dive blogs to see if they partake in clean-up activities offer good dive practice advice or talk about organizations whose aim is to improve and protect our oceans. Organizations such as Green Fins, Shark Guardian, Project Aware are some to look out for! Always push for responsible practices where possible, check online reviews for positive consistency, and speak to the dive centers directly to find out their ethics and core values.
Focus and Promote Good Buoyancy Control
One of, if not the most important things to master in scuba diving is maintaining buoyancy control. Besides helping you to have a comfortable confident dive, it also helps any and all surrounding marine life too. Sudden movement can frighten marine life sending them into a panic, initiating the fight or flight mode, and altering their natural behavior. A fin smashing into corals can break in seconds what literally took years to grow.Make sure to check your weight, adjust when necessary, and respect the ocean wholeheartedly. Pay particular attention to your position underwater, don’t forget you are now a much bigger size with a tank and long fins. It’s important to be aware of any equipment that may drag along the sea bed, disturbing any sediment as you go and damaging tiny micro life like Nudibranch or seahorse, or shrimp to anime only a few examples. Lastly, remember - there’s no need to rush underwater, keep a slow, steady pace at all times and enjoy yourself.
Zero Contact Approach
This one is essential and there are quite a few things we could talk about here. First of all, please don’t feed aquatic life with unnatural food. Feeding wild animals seriously affect their day-to-day behavioral patterns and damages the local ecology. Secondly, chasing them or moving them unnaturally can have a major impact. Lining yourself up and hoping for that perfect photo can take a long time to achieve but if the animal moves on, please don’t be tempted to chase or corner it. By all means, swimming along with a sea turtle or larger fish is an amazing experience but stay vigilant and make sure you're not stressing it out. You’ll only cause alarm and panic! Us human beings are literally aliens underwater to marine life, we must respect them at all times and avoid touching or removing anything from the ocean, this includes corals!
Leave The Dive Gloves Behind On Coral Dives
Nearly every diver has a pair of dive gloves in their kit, whether it be for protection from potentially dangerous situations (being bitten, cuts leading to infection etc) or ensuring warmth for the hands. The thing about gloves though, is that they tend to give off a false sense of superiority, encouraging people to think that they’re free to touch whatever they want. Now obviously, gloves are a must on colder water dives and in many instances of wreck diving, etc, so I don't advocate for “no glove” diving as much as I advocate for “be sensible” diving
Some dive centers have introduced a ‘glove-free’ policy in a bid to try and stop divers from making this mistake. I'm not sure I agree with this, as adults with the correct education and attitude we can all learn how to dive in an eco-friendly manner using gloves without being treated like children who are expected to misbehave.
As said in my previous tip, educated and eco-conscious scuba divers know not to touch anything underwater unless removing rubbish or when required. Of course, some parts of the world require different forms of scuba gear depending on the temperature, etc so good practice is to get into the habit of not using your hands at all when diving, decreasing the urge to touch full stop.
Sustainable Goods
It's certainly a dire situation we have created for ourselves with plastic and the consumer markets and that is only the tip of a wider less acknowledged issue whereby you realize our entire common practices are not based within ecological common sense but rather production value and conveniences.
Switching to more sustainable methods is not only hugely beneficial to the environment but to our health too! Plastic is made from a series of oil-derived products and is mostly non-biodegradable. It can release incredibly harmful toxins which can enter our soil, our water, our air, and even our bodies. Most plastics are not or can not be recycled properly, ending up in landfills across the globe but sometimes they don’t even make it that far.
Instead, ending up in our oceans and forests for animals to confuse with food, become entangled in or suffocated from, resulting in death and pollution of food chains.
Back around 2019 we must have all seen the haunting image of the poor turtle with a plastic straw stuck up its nose, right?? It’s time to stop buying plastic disposables and start investing in more sustainable materials such as reusable shopping bags, reusable water bottles, stainless steel/bamboo straws and cutlery instead of plastic ones. We saw a massive improvement across southeast Asia in this respect just before the pandemic, since which BILLIONS of facemasks and disposable plastic test kits and lord knows how many billions of liters of harmful bleach and disinfectant have now been introduced into the equation?! It's heartbreaking to envision where we are now at and where we are going with everything else that is going now nowadays, but we must not give up and continue to fight for our earth. After all, we only get one.
Raise Awareness - Be The Change You Want To See In The World
Part of being a responsible human, let alone a responsible diver is to report any environmental issues that you may come across. This includes logging sightings of endangered species and coral bleaching in your logbook or reporting clean-up activities with apps such as dive against debris. You may even go as far as reporting any environmental violations you may have witnessed. It’s important to help conservationists identify problem areas by inputting your data or sharing your pictures online and letting the world know what’s going on.
You never know, you could dive into an area that is usually thriving with marine life only to discover a major species depletion or pollution threat. Help raise awareness and report it! Below is a list of some such apps and organizations that work on this. But I'm sure there are many more. Do your research.
Project AWARE Dive Against Debris
Project iSeahorse
Sea Turtle Monitoring
SharkGuardian
Green Fins
Heal The Ocean - Report Pollution
Report Environmental Issue to local government (UK)
Responsible Underwater Photography
Taking photographs of the breathtaking view whilst diving is a favorite amongst most of us but it's important to be smart about it. Always stay at a polite distance so as not to startle any marine life, move slowly and ensure that you are not a threat. Never block any exits for animals, never reach out to them or paparazzi them with 100 camera flashes! Have you ever been unprepared for a photo and gotten blinded by the flash? Well, imagine what it would do underwater to creatures that don’t even know what a camera is! The same goes for flashlights and torches, avoid potentially blinding and disorientating our underwater family. A pretty photo is always a nice memento but thinks about your subject first before proceeding.
Green Fins have produced a fantastic Guide on How to be a Responsible Underwater Photographer
Give Back At a Grassroots level - Be The Change You Want To See In The World
Giving back is a definite part of being an eco-friendly diver and there are a fair few ways to do this. Firstly, find your nearest beach, take a walk and Take 3 For the Sea (Take 3 is just an example of how a simple grassroots message can be implemented by absolutely anyone anywhere to be honest to make a change) You can also join or even organize clean up events yourself. There’s nothing better than meeting like-minded people and making a standby joining forces to remove plastics and other rubbish from the beaches and natural beautify spots!
