Insist that your diving guides pay equal attention to each of three “phases” of a dive:
preparation, exploration and debriefing

I Knowing the environment

Before diving

• Fit out information boards about the ecosystem of your area (sea grass habitat, sandy bottoms, coral bottoms, oar weed zone, pelagic area…)
• Place reference books at diving guides’ and divers’ disposal : submersible identification charts, books about marine biology and species of the area.
• Provide audiovisual presentation about the ecosystems of the area in your class room.
• Get informed about the scientific programs run in the area.
• Contract diving guides with a preparatory training in marine biology.

While diving

• Let your diving guides and autonomous divers draw up an inventory and a follow-up of the health of the diving spots :

• Presence of waste.
• Presence and abundance of indicator species, great predators.
• Protected species, fragile species, overgrown (invasive) species.

After diving

• Collect information from the records of the diving guides and students. Write them down daily in order to keep up with changes in health of the diving spots.
• Contact the local biologists in order to inform them of those changes.

II. Reducing your impact on the environment

Before diving

• Tell your diving guides to be careful to ensure that divers do not to throw anything overboard, including cigarette filters.
• Request permission from the coastal authorities to fix a mooring buoy.
• Prefer moorages on a sandy bottom rather than on a fixed life zone (sea grass habitat, corals, weeds)
• Choose diving spots linked with your activity : exploration or technical dives.
• Tell your diving guides to carefully watch the ballast and the equipment of the student divers.
• Show solidarity with the other diving schools in order to find, all together, good solutions to reduce the impact of the human activities on sea environment.
• Tell your diving guides to emphasize respect of environment.

While diving

• Schedule your dives, if possible, to reduce any damaging effect on the environment. Limit the number of divers on the spots.
• Forbid any animal feedings and plant or animal collection.
• Ask the diving guides to use the sandy areas for the technical part of the course.
• Put bags at anybody’s disposal to collect small waste.

After diving

• Save fresh water : fit up rinsing tanks, showers and taps with controlled flow.
• Ask the diving guides to explain why it is important to save fresh water.
• Prefer renewable energy.
• Collect waste oil, used batteries and plastic packaging.
• Use reusable plates, glasses and cutlery instead of disposable plastic ones.
• Use biodegradable soap and dish soap.
• Refuse all useless wrapping.

 

III. Protecting and taking actions to protect

Before diving

• Sign up for an ethic charter for environment protection.
• Let people know about the “International guidelines for responsible diver”.
• Contract diving guides aware of environmental issues.
• Train your diving guide to marine biology especially before the season starts.
• Get the diving guides and divers informed about threatened and protected species.
• Include an “Environment and underwater life” part in your technical courses.

While diving

• Ask all the diving guides to behave as an example for the other divers.
• Perform a follow-up of health changes in the diving spots in collaboration with the other diving schools of your area.

After diving

• Make a synthesis of the health of your diving spots.
• Share your observations and surveys with the neighbouring diving centres to decide to stop diving activities on over-visited spots.
• Don’t sell any souvenirs ripped from the sea : shark teeth, tortoise shell, dried fishes, shellfish, corals, etc...
• Lead initiatives for sea life protection in collaboration with the other diving centres, local fishermen and other sea users it may concern.