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Alert Diver Article Underwater we are guests in a foreign environment. Part of being a respectful guest is leaving the area to thrive as it was before you arrived. The primary challenge for scuba divers is to minimize any negative impact of their presence while enjoying and/or working in the marine ecosystem.
For divers, there are considerations both underwater and topside. This article presents some recommendations that deserve attention and suggests some actions every diver can take to protect the ocean.
1. Keep your bits to yourself! Wayward divers can easily damage underwater organisms and/or structures such as coral. A single misplaced kick or dangling gauge console, for example, can destroy coral colonies that may have taken hundreds of years to grow.
Holding onto coral (to stabilize or get closer to look at something, for example) or resting on the bottom in sensitive areas can cause similar damage. According to a study of diver impact, fins cause the most damage in reef areas, followed closely by hands, knees and dangling equipment.5 Less immediately obvious is the impact of the mud-grubbing diver, whose disturbance of sediments may lead to the smothering of live coral.8
The good news is that divers can avoid most damaging practices through buoyancy control and spatial awareness. Appropriate control can keep you free of unnecessary contact and will ease your ability to move in the three-dimensional world. In addition to protecting the environment, maintaining neutral buoyancy will make any dive less fatiguing and help reduce air consumption.
Proper weighting for different environments (salt- versus freshwater), equipment (cylinder and suit configurations) and skill level (many novice divers carry much more weight than necessary) will improve comfort and control. Improving your diving protects both you and the environment.
2. Avoid personal pollution There are decisions that need to be made long before you enter the water for a dive. Recent research has shown that chemicals commonly found in sunscreen can accelerate coral bleaching by promoting viral infection of the coral colony and subsequent coral death.1 This is a much more subtle problem than physical contact, one we need to learn much more about.
Meanwhile, be aware that decisions you make on the surface can affect the living reef. The most eco-friendly approach would be to minimize the use of chemical products before venturing underwater. Most dive suits and a hat can provide reasonable protection from the sun. Sunscreen can then be slathered on when diving is complete. If sunscreens are to be used for diving, those that reflect rather than absorb ultraviolet light may be safer for the environment. Determining truly environmentally friendly chemicals requires more research.
3. Take only memories It is tempting for divers to collect underwater souvenirs. There is a downside to this practice, however. Taking home shells, for example, has a number of undesirable effects. First, the act removes products that would normally be recycled in a healthy ocean - as homes for other animals, as substrate material (shells break down to become sand) and/or as chemical products of the water.7 Many treasures taken home to display may have a limited shelf life. Shells can lose their luster, sometimes develop a nasty smell and ultimately deteriorate. Though taking one shell would seem to have little impact, even the richest areas could quickly be spoiled if every diver did the same thing.
We protect our diving heritage by leaving it intact. The best way to leave a dive site is with memories and photographs captured without disturbing the environment.
4. Choose to moor Most people think about anchoring to secure a boat at a dive site. Although anchoring allows flexibility in location, mooring is much kinder to the environment and is increasingly common at popular dive sites. A permanent attachment is made at the bottom by bolting to the substrate or placing weighted blocks. Lines are run to mooring buoys at or near the surface. Rather than damaging the dive site by repeatedly dropping anchor, the boat captures and ties off to the mooring buoy.
Two popular dive locations, Bonaire and the Florida Keys, have seen great success following their introduction of mooring lines. Between 1978 and 1980, the Bonaire National Marine Park placed a series of mooring lines. The installation protected the coral reefs and, as an unexpected bonus, created "mini" artificial reefs that provide habitat for coral, invertebrates and fish.6 In 1981 the Florida Keys began using a network of mooring buoys, with nearly 400 mooring buoys now located in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
Support efforts to maintain or develop mooring line programs. Ask where they are available and use them when you can.
5. No feeding Chumming is the practice of placing fish, fish parts or other edible material into the water to attract animals, often predators, to a particular area for recreation. Chumming has been used at many dive sites to encourage shark presence for caged or uncaged divers. Several potentially detrimental effects have been reported. These include behavioral changes in both targeted and untargeted species, increased risk of injury to divers and possible exposure of marine species to adverse health effects.2,3
In 1991 the National Marine Fisheries Service banned dolphin-feeding cruises in the Gulf of Mexico. This is similar to practices of land-based national parks where feeding wildlife has long been banned. Diving without interference at sites that animals frequent will lead to a more realistic encounter with the animal, aiding in its protection and your own.
6. Reduce your waste Waste debris is found in all of the world's oceans. Recent documentation hints at the scope of the problem.4 The policy of "reduce, reuse, recycle" is important to protect the ocean's health and minimize your impact. Start thinking about what to take before you leave for a dive.
Some dive locations, for example, prohibit chemical light sticks to control the waste stream. Reusable batteries in tank marker lights and flashlights help reduce the amount of trash that goes into a landfill or pollutes the ocean. During your dive, handle the waste properly so that wrappers, plastic bottles and remnants do not reach the ocean.
Despite our best efforts, however, debris will sometimes make its way into the ocean. What, then, should we do with previously deposited or accidental detritus? Cleaning up waste from both surface and underwater sites will reduce the stress of trash on marine animals. Use judgment when you clear debris. Pick up a bottle that has just arrived at the bottom, but leave a bottle in which a creature has made a home.
7. Volunteer Many diver-supported programs involve divers directly in the conservation, protection and restoration of our underwater sites. Underwater cleanup days, held separately or in conjunction with shore or coastal cleanup days, bring together like-minded people. Additionally, underwater monitoring initiatives allow divers to participate in fish count and habitat studies. This provides insights into the health of local habitats. Such events allow divers to meet other divers, to do their parts for the environment and possibly get in a dive.
Look for underwater cleanup or monitoring programs in your community or at sites you visit. You may find good support to start a cleanup program if one is not in place. Divers frequently need little encouragement to get into the water; they may also appreciate the effort to protect a favorite dive location.
8. Pass it on The path to solutions generally begins with awareness. Encourage environmentally friendly behavior, promote diver-supported events and check out products that may make your activities a little greener. One diver can have an impact, many divers can bring about change.
Maintenance of healthy marine resources and species is fundamental to the success and prosperity of the oceans. As ambassadors to the underwater world, divers should take an active role in helping to keep our marine environment healthy.
References
1. Danovar R, Bongiorni L, Corinaldesi C, Giocannelli D, Damiani E, Astolfi P, Greci L, Pusceddu A. "Sunscreens cause coral bleaching by promoting viral infections." Environmental and Health Perspectives. 2008; 116: 441-447.
2. Johnson D, King A. "A report on the use of attractants in the fishing industry." Report to Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Research Activity Panel. 1994. Available from http://montereybay.noaa.gov/research/techreports/rap_chum_rpt.html. [Accessed June 15, 2008]
3. Kimley, AP. "The predatory behavior of the White Shark." American Scientist. 1994; 82(2):122-133.
4. National Marine Debris Monitoring Program Final Report. Washington, DC: Ocean Conservancy, 2007: 74 pp.
5. Rouphael AB, Inglis GJ. "Increased spatial and temporal variability in coral damage caused by recreational scuba diving." Ecological Applications. 2002; 12: 427-440.
6. STINAPA Bonaire National Parks Foundation. Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles; c2003-2007. Bonaire National Marine Park - Moorings. Available from: http://www.bmp.org/moorings.html. [Accessed July 3, 2008].
7. Wells SM. "Impacts of precious shell harvest and trade: conservation of rare or fragile resources." In: Caddy JF, editor. Marine invertebrate fisheries: their assessment and management. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1989: p. 443-454.
8. Zakai D, Chadwick-Furman NE. "Impacts of intensive recreational scuba diving on reef corals at Eliat, Northern Red Sea." Biological Conservation. 2002; 105: 179-187.
About the Authors Katharine E. Suek completed a bachelor of arts degree in communications with a minor in geology at the University of Colorado at Boulder in December 2007. In the summer of 2008, she was a research intern at DAN Headquarters.
Neal W. Pollock, Ph.D., is research director at DAN and a research physiologist at the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology, Duke University Medical Center.
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