Scuba diving industry sets Green standards

Three groups have designed a green certification standard specific to the scuba diving industry which will promote businesses that protect the ocean.

Ocean First Divers, Scuba Schools International and Sustainable Travel International are planning to work with diving centres and dive tour operators to inform them about globally-accepted practices within the scuba diving industry that work with the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria.

The criteria includes best practices related to specific marine activities such as boating regulations, health and safety training and ocean conservation, which are some of the core values that form the baseline of the Dive Centre and Shore Excursions Standards.

Ocean First Divers, who initiated the partnership, has vast experience within the scuba diving sector and the company has spent the last five years trying to establish standards for marine responsibility and preservation. The group has developed a wetsuit reclamation programme and carbon calculator for liveaboard vessels which assesses the carbon footprint of luxury scuba diving holidays aboard diving cruises. Ocean First Divers has also invested more than $200,000 into renewable energy systems such as solar PV, thermal and high-efficiency boilers, a heat exchanger, and variable speed pool pumps.

Graham Casden, Owner of Ocean First Divers, said: "As my passion grew for scuba diving and exploring the magic of our ocean, I quickly realised that the dive industry needed to thoroughly re-evaluate the way it approached transforming customers into impassioned stewards for the very resource that we, as an industry, depend on for our livelihood. There has been a disregard for this fragile ocean ecosystem and developing personal accountability for it."

Director of Standards Development for Sustainable Travel, Robert Chappell, added: "We will attract dive centres and dive operators from around the world to take part in the programme, self-assess their current activities and proceed to higher levels of certification through second and third party evaluations.

"The certification will provide customers with a degree of trust that these operators are doing all they can to minimise negative impacts and improve positive contributions to the environment, society and local economies. The certification will also create stronger brand recognition as a sustainable operator, increasingly important to today's conscious traveller."

Scuba diving is an increasingly popular activity with holidaymakers and every year thousands head to exotic scuba diving destinations including Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the Maldives, Red Sea resorts, Hawaii, the Mediterranean and the United States.