Scuba diving and Marine Conservation are now interlinked more so than ever before. While historically, scuba diving conservation was a tiny niche, it is now the mainstream and one of the primary discourses of the diving community.

When it comes to scuba diving conservation, divers today play a critical role in marine conservation efforts worldwide. Whether it is through raising awareness, citizen science programs, reef restoration, or simply education, fundraising, and only supporting green initiatives and companies, divers can make a bigger impact than ever before.
The Role of Divers in Marine Conservation
When it comes to marine conservation, the primary role of scuba divers is to act as the eyes and ears of scientists and authorities and be advocates for the marine world. Divers should take note of changes in the sites they regularly frequent. If they see negative changes like pollution or plastic debris, they should be proactive and inform the relevant scientists and or authorities.
Similarly, if they witness unsustainable and environmentally damaging, they should advocate and raise awareness with the perpetrators and notify the relevant authorities.
Divers should act as conservation role models when on land or in the water. For instance, refuse the plastic bag in a shop and bring your own. By the same token, if they see a plastic bag floating in the ocean when diving, grab it and pocket it, then dispose of it appropriately later on land.
Ultimately divers passionate about the ocean’s wonders and inhabitants need to be its loudest advocates. Since if they are silent, they may find they soon have nowhere to go and dive after all, and most of the wonders of the deep are lost in history!
Dive with a Purpose: Citizen Science Programs
Citizen science programs are one of the best and easiest ways divers can make a difference and actively participate in scuba diving conservation. There are numerous amounts of citizen science programs you can get involved with. While they may cover an extensive range of activities and topics, scuba diving conservation citizen science programs fall broadly into two categories supervised and unsupervised.
Supervised Citizen Science Programs
The clue is in the name of the supervised citizen science program, in that they occur in a formal setting for a period of time, and you are supervised and guided through the activity. Normally you will volunteer to spend a period of time, from one week to six months or more, and take part in scientific and conservation work as a citizen scientist.
Typical programs like these include working at a turtle sanctuary and rehabilitation centers and spending a week planting or out-planting coral from a nursery to a reef or volunteering to join expeditions to survey and monitor specific reefs and locations.
Unsupervised Citizen Science Programs
Unsupervised programs take a different form entirely. Generally, you will receive initial training, and then you are free to conduct your “scientific activity” when your times and logistics allow. Most unsupervised programs tend to be observational and are aimed at helping scientists gather as broader a data set as possible.
A scuba diving conservation program may involve you reporting on the number and types of encounters of specific species when diving in various destinations. Or uploading images of species so researchers can identify and track individuals within a species. For instance, manta ray underbelly color patterns are unique, and several projects, local and otherwise, want images of the underbelly with location and date data. This is so they can track the individual and develop an understanding of their movement pattern.
Another active example of unsupervised citizen science is debris dives; you are free to conduct trash dives anywhere in the world. However, you can then upload the data with the details of what you collected to a central database. This allows researchers to build up an accurate picture of the scourge of debris worldwide.
Coral Reef Conservation Efforts
Divers can participate in a wide range of coral reef conservation projects worldwide. While they all have their unique features, they can all be arguably described as coral gardening projects. In most of these projects, there are coral nurseries where thousands of corals are being grown in sheltered locations. Once they are strong enough, they are out-planted into the reef to repair damaged sections and establish new reefs.
Divers can volunteer to go and spend either working on the coral nursery underwater or helping with the out-planting efforts. Remember that while these gardening projects are more popular than ever, there is some doubt about how effective they are on a global scale and whether our efforts are best suited elsewhere. But until there is comprehensive evidence, one way or another, expect them to gain further popularity.
Two entirely different coral reef conservation efforts that link scuba diving conservation and hunting are dealing with invasive species. The two prime examples are lionfish derbies in the Caribbean to deal with the non-native lionfish, which negatively impacts the reef. At the same time, the other example is dealing with the crown of thorns starfish, which can decimate coral.
Sadly, the main predator of the crown of thorns is the giant triton which humans often collect for its shell. Once it is gone, you can have explosions of the crown of thorns which can decimate reefs. The only way to deal with this issue is for divers to hunt and remove them by hand. A laborious and thankless task that takes the efforts of many volunteers over many days and weeks.
Scuba Diving Conservation: Responsible Dive Practices
As a diver, scuba diving conservation should be something you do every single time you put your gear on and get in the water. By far, the old adage of “take nothing but memories, and leave nothing but bubbles” is an excellent place to start when it comes to scuba diving conservation and good dive practices.
In addition, you should have perfect buoyancy and avoid touching the reef or marine life in any way. Even seagrass is not like grass on land you can walk over. Avoid kneeling or kicking sea grass; it is home to thousands of organisms and has its unique small ecosystems. The last thing it needs is a scuba diver lying on it.
It goes without saying that your fins should never touch anything but water. Ensure you are always aware of where your fins are and what they are in contact with. A slight knock with your fin can easily break and kill a piece of hundreds of years old coral.
There are multiple programs like the Green Fins initiative that you can take that will educate and inform you about the best dive practices you can take to be an environmentally friendly diver and reduce your impact when you are in the water.
Supporting Sustainable Dive Tourism
If you are a diver, you owe it to the environment to only support sustainable dive tourism. Since if you do not, you may end up with nowhere to dive, and more importantly, you are likely depriving future generations of the magic of discovering the underwater world.
Before parting with your hard-earned cash, research and ensure that your chosen liveaboard, resort, dive operator, and so forth are engaged and committed to sustainable dive tourism. No one operator can do everything, but there is an awful lot they can do.
Look and see is your operator is engaged with local education and conservation efforts. Do they support scuba diving conservation initiatives like the Green Fins program or the Divers Against Debris, to name a few? Does your operator support regular cleanup dive or citizen science programs like Reef Check? Does the operator provide water in single-use or refillable bottles while on boats?
The list of activities is endless and can vary massively depending on where you are worldwide. As a diver interested in scuba diving conservation, you should try and find the local operator that ticks as many sustainable dive tourism boxes as is feasible. Since these are the operators that deserve your support.