What Do You Do to Help the Environment While Diving?

[kablooey]

What actions do you take to positively help the environment while diving?

We all take care to not damage the reefs, or injure the sea life.
But I'm hoping to hear and learn about what divers are doing to help reverse the environmental damage we see underwater.

As for myself and my buddies, we frequently carry a small clippable mesh bag with us. When we find plastic waste, we simply pick it up. That includes straws, cups, bags, deflated birthday balloons, monofilament fishing line, and all sorts of bad stuff like that. Then we dispose of the junk properly when back on dry land.
I bring extra mesh bags to the dive sites for my friends. They're cheap; three for a buck at the dollar store.

I know it's not a major action, but we like to think we're at least doing something positive, and it feels good.

So, please tell us what you do to help the environment.

 

[doctormike]

Bring a refillable (steel, preferably) water bottle on a dive boat! And all the other plastic free things that we should be doing.

Also, dive locally as much as possible...

 

[Johnoly]

What actions do you take to positively help the environment while diving?.

We kill as many invassive lionfish in the ocean as we can to help save the baby groupers and snappers.
{P.S. @kablooey ,,, In FLA we say, if you don't have a picture, it didn't happen,,,post one of yours up!! )

 

[Searcaigh]

Bring my own water bottle on boat trips, collect plastic bags I find floating around during a dive (usually stuff them in a pocket or secure them somehow).

Try to make sure no trash goes overboard, you'd be surprised how many people still chuck stuff into the sea, especially the area where I frequently dive.

Underwater, cans and bottles I leave alone, frequently they become habitats for critters.

 

[Kharon]

Diving locally I bring a mesh bag, sometimes two, and pick up every man made thing I can. On trips it's the same except that I don't pick up anything that has growth on it. As far as a can or bottle providing habitat. I pick them up. There's plenty of habitat that isn't man made.

Some weird things I've brought up on local dives - bicycles, the bottom sled of an ice fishing shack, a 10' inflatable island raft.

Everywhere I carry my own water bottles. During surface intervals and on my non-dive day I go to areas that have junk (mostly plastic) washed up and gather and dispose of as much as I can.

Would love to kill the few lionfish I encounter, but so far the places I have gone don't allow it. Going to Belize (Placencia) next April and I believe I can kill them there. Also planning a Florida trip for Fall 2019. I think I can kill them there. I don't actually see that many so my efforts wouldn't amount to much. They just offend me..

 

[Steve_C]

OP request was not what you avoid doing but what you do. Not much can be done offshore. Once in a while if I see a piece of trash I might bring it up. But generally not much one can do outside of the invasive hunting mentioned above.

 

[doctormike]

OP request was not what you avoid doing but what you do. Not much can be done offshore. Once in a while if I see a piece of trash I might bring it up. But generally not much one can do outside of the invasive hunting mentioned above.

I don’t understand. Reducing single use plastic waste doesn’t help the marine environment?

 

[Doc]

While I'm engaged in an activity with a carbon footprint just short of downhill skiing?

I guess maybe I try not to blow my mask snot into the water. Oh sure, I pick up garbage and collect fishing line.

I put the well meaning culling of Lionfish in the same category of human hubris as "I need to wear gloves". Only man could believe his microscopic actions can fix the nature he himself perverted. We fancy ourselves as thinkers but are clouded by emotion.

I'm with Dr Mike who infers- stay home, stay local. I really enjoy Roatan, but I look up at the dozen jets dumping petrochemical crud on the reef, the cruise ships boiling by that look so clean and white.

There's nothing we as 1hr BT divers can do to mollify the damage being reigned down 24/7/365. But if spearing Lionfish gives you something to do u/w, that's good enough for me. If you believe you're fixing the problem? It's good to believe in something- I believe I'll have another drink (WC Fields). Aw, Jeez, Edith, let's not go all OT here about Lionfish, by now, we have an entire SB Forum for that. [/STOP]

I'm sticking with not blowing mask snot into the Sea. It makes me feel better, and that's unfortunately what all this is about.

 

[CT-Rich]

I have solar on my house, avoid single use bottles, keep my thermostat at 56F when I am not home, try to consolidate my driving trips. All of that is important for the environment. Burning $20 worth of gas so I can putter around the sea floor for a couple of hours is not eco friendly. I will open derelict lobster pots and recover lines and pieces of litter, but it is much more about how you live everyday than what you do while diving. Although killing lion fish is a pretty good one.

The best things you can do to improve water quality are at home, like don’t fertilize your lawn, compost food waste. Make sure your car doesn’t leak oil. Recycle papers and plastics. Don’t ever buy bottled water.

Every gallon of gasoline creates 22 lbs of CO2. Average household electricity produces 5-10 tons of CO2 a year. Cut back on meat consumption, methane from cattle is 20 times better at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Changing over to all LED bulbs will do a lot more than picking up junk while diving. The neat thing is, you can do both....

 

[In2theabyss]

Always have my insulated Hydroflask for a nice cool drink and keep a weighted container in my dive bag for trash. Kind of bugs me when i see open trash cans on the deck of a dive boat.....