Protecting Coral Reefs

How can divers and snorkelers help with protecting coral reefs when visiting these underwater ecosystems?

As we shall see, there are several aspects to this issue, but first and foremost it should clearly be understood that coral reefs are under threats from many sources other than visiting underwater explorers. By far, the most serious threats to coral reefs stem from the rapid growth of human populations and coastal development, particularly in areas that house coral reefs.

Fact: coral reefs are home to an amazing abundance and variety of marine life. © Fotolia

There is not much the average diver or snorkeler can do about such things as global warming or ocean acidification. However, numerous scientific studies have unambiguously shown that dive tourism can also be a source of coral reef damage and other ecosystem impacts.

Further, it is also clear that there are a few things that the average coral reef explorer can do to ensure that their visits to coral reefs do not contribute to the problems already faced by these ecosystems.

Divers, Snorkelers, and Protecting Coral Reefs

Visitors who want to help protect coral reefs first and foremost must realize that sound coral reef conservation involves an "ecosystem approach".

This means that visitors must not only be mindful of avoiding damage to the hard corals themselves, but also minimizing visitor impacts on all components of the reef community, including both plants and animals. Visitors should not only avoid direct physical injury to these creatures, but also avoid the disruption or alteration of coral reef animal behavior.

For example at some popular dive tourism destinations, divers (and even dive dive operators) regularly feed or otherwise harass (chase, touch) marine life (see photo, left).

In such areas, the behavior and distribution of animals treated in such ways become dramatically altered from the natural state. Such changes can persist for a very long time, even if these types of harassment cease.

Such adverse effects may have ecosystem-level repercussions as well as population level impacts of the species harassed, and also increase the risk of animal attacks upon humans. That is why this type of visitor behavior has been completely prohibited in all U.S. and Canadian National Parks for many years.

Reef Friendly Scuba Skills

Coral reef diving presents special challenges not found in any other marine habitat visited by scuba divers.

As a result, mastery of a few coral reef diving skills will go far in helping scuba divers protect coral reefs. This can be readily accomplished by becoming highly proficient in certain scuba skills first introduced to all divers as part of their basic scuba certification courses.

Becoming a technically adept coral reef diver does not take a great deal of effort; only a willingness to commit oneself to the extra effort and learning needed to perfect these skills.

Buoyancy Control

Learning to master the art of neutral buoyancy at any depth allows divers to move effortlessly around coral reefs. This is the most basic of coral reef diving skills, as it avoids the unwelcome need to continually fuss with equipment or thrash about to keep from continually sinking or rising in the water column.

Neutral buoyancy also allows the reef diver to consume less air and focus on observing and exploring the reef (and otherwise enjoying the dive). It is a particularly useful skill for fish watchers, allowing divers to get close enough to the reef to be able to observe even smaller creatures without banging into the reef (bad for you and the reef).

The modern buoyancy compensator makes such skills relatively easy with a bit of practice. All it takes is knowing exactly (not approximately) how much weight you need to make you slightly negatively buoyant, and then learning to add/remove air in very small doses until the desired effect (neutral buoyancy) is achieved at any depth.

Reef friendly scuba skills are not difficult. Courtesy NOAA.

Remember, the amount of weight a diver needs to be slightly negatively buoyant at the surface will change with many factors, including the weight of your equipment, your own body weight, and the water density at your dive site.

The density of tropical seas in which coral reefs thrive will almost certainly differ from that of the water in your local pool or lake back home, so a bit of on-site fine tuning of the proper weight to carry will usually be necessary upon arrival at your coral reef diving destination.

This is best accomplished by making your first dive in the calm shallow waters of the back reef zone (lagoon), where you can fine tune the amount of weight you will carry without dealing with waves, currents, and other distractions.

If you need help in mastering neutral buoyancy, do not hesitate to ask your dive master or other advanced divers in your group.

Movement and Breathing Control

Learning to move slowly about coral reefs is also one of the most useful of coral reef diving skills, and essential to protecting coral reefs from diver impacts.

Fishes and many other forms of marine life are extremely sensitive to underwater sound, a form of which is created by underwater moving objects such as a diver's arms and legs.

Sudden movements will often trigger an alarm response in marine life, and you will not see nearly so many critters as you might otherwise. Sudden movements close to the reef can also lead to contact with the reef resulting in painful injuries for divers as well as reef habitat damage.

Likewise, practice (until it becomes habitual) to breathe from your regulator in a smooth, regular and controlled manner. As with sudden movements of the body, irregular, sudden, and/or strong exhalations of divers create unexpected underwater sounds that can be sensed at surprising distances by marine life.

Mastering these few simple skills will help you make the most of your explorations wherever and whenever you dive coral reefs, and will minimize the impacts of your visits to these ecosystems.

Reef Friendly Diving and Snorkeling Practices

The individual diver or snorkeler can also help minimize the impacts of their visits to coral reefs by learning and observing responsible diving practices.

To that end, we provide the following "Reef Friendly Diving Practices" based upon scientific evidence, the recommendations of some of the leading marine conservation organizations, and authoritative publications* whose goal is protecting coral reef ecosystems from dive tourism-related damage.

By following these few simple common-sense diving practices (and encouraging others to do the same), you can make a difference.

Do Not:

• Kick up sand/sediment with your fins

• Feed or attempt to feed fish or any other marine life

• Spear, hook or capture any marine life

• Harass, chase, or try to ride marine life such as turtles, manatees, sharks, etc.

• Take rocks, pieces of coral, shells, or any other parts of the natural habitat

• Dump or throw anything overboard.

Do:

• Avoid touching or contacting corals or other reef dwelling organisms

• Wear a t-shirt rather than oils or lotions to protect your skin from the sun

• Where available, ask for a pre-dive briefing on the local reef ecosystem before you dive

• If you are on a private vessel, make sure that the boat captain does not run aground, or anchor on the reef

*Adapted from: (1)It's my Choice: Coral or No Coral - Communication Tool Kit United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), 2002; and (2) Voluntary Standards for Marine Recreation in the Mesoamerican Reef System, ICRAN Mesoamerican Reef Alliance Standards and Code Taskforce, 2007.