Can you believe that today, 75% of the world’s coral reefs are threatened due to human activity and rising ocean temperatures, and that within 20 years it is expected this will rise to 90%. What’s worse is that only 20% of them are protected today!

It seems like the only way to really stop the deterioration of coral reefs is stop visiting and exploring them all together, yet of course this is not realistic. It’s the price we pay for visiting pretty places like St. Lucia.

Fun (or not-so-fun) Fact: Tourism is the largest and fastest growing service industry in the world! What does this mean? It means sustainability, sustainability, sustainability…

We all know the basics of sustainable scuba diving and snorkeling – don’t walk on the bottom, don’t touch stuff, don’t feed the fish, etc. Yet one thing we often overlook is our sunscreen!

An estimated 4000-6000 metric tons of sunscreen wash off swimmers every year in our oceans. Sounds crazy, right? Check this – most mass-market sunscreens contains petrolatum (mineral oil), which is an extract of crude oil and is harmful to aquatic life. So when you tilt your head to look at it, we are slowly adding to our own oil spill!

What can you do? Well, there are companies producing eco-friendly sunscreen that can help, one of which is Reef Safe Suncare – and they do a good job of it. You can read more about it on their website.

– May not be a leap in the sustainability we need, but it’s a step (or a flipper kick) in the right direction!

Comments