Scuba Diving & its Environmental Sustainability: Open Water Certifications, New Diver Training & Influencing Factors for Dive Centre Management

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to help mitigate negative impacts on coral reefs and related ecosystems and for the author to gain professional growth in this field. The objectives were to investigate the sustainable content in beginner scuba courses, how adequate the level of training for new divers is to ensure the protection of the marine ecosystem, and the main factors influencing dive centres to be eco-friendly. The thesis was conducted in partnership with the commissioning party, The Reef-World Foundation, a UK based charity. In the theoretical part of the thesis, sustainable tourism and its relation to scuba diving, beginner scuba div-ing courses, the topic of underwater damage from scuba divers, reasons for businesses to make environ-mentally conscious decisions, Green Fins, and a benchmark to a different industry were all portrayed. This was followed by an explanation of the methodology; in order to achieve a mix of quantitative and qualitative data, a survey was first performed, followed by interviews. The major trends found as a result of this study were that participants believed sustainable content was lacking from beginner scuba courses and that the level of training for new divers was not enough for them to be strong, autonomous and confident divers. It was also found that an individual’s mindset, awareness campaigns, upbringing and priority on making money were among the most common influencing factors for dive centres to be sustainable or not. Thus, it was concluded that more environmental content, buoyancy practice and extra open water dives could be added to beginner courses. In addition, sustainability knowledge could be standardised across the industry, as it currently depends heavily on instructors’ and business owners’ personal motives. According monetary value to green practices and integrating sustainability into education systems would both be ways to achieve this and elicit the benefits of sustainability. Another research topic which emerged from this thesis was the effectiveness of e-learning for scuba diving theory. Targeted research could be conducted to ascertain whether it works or not in the training of new divers, especially in terms of protecting the environment.