Survey Results: Sustainable Tourism & Scuba Diving

How important is the understanding of aquatic environments & ecology of the locations we frequent as scuba divers?

• 86.7% of dive professionals judged this to be important or very important.
• 79.2% of scuba divers said the same.

In both groups, most survey respondents judged this to be quite important. It makes sense that the issue is even more important to dive professionals since their livelihood depends on it.

• 60.0% of dive professionals believed that topic to be important or very important to their scuba diving clients.

Based on these figures, it is possible that dive professionals underestimate their clients’ interest in the environment.

How well are we prepared?

• Only 15.6% of dive professionals reported that their scuba training courses had prepared them very well or well for aquatic environments.
• Only 22.9% of scuba divers said they had been well or very well prepared to understand the environment in which they were to dive.

So far, this survey shows that a majority of scuba divers, at all levels, believe the environment to be significantly important, although they were not well prepared.

How are we training new scuba divers?

• Only 18.8% of scuba divers reported that the dive instructor in their initial entry-level scuba diving certification course showed interest in or was very interested in the environment.

There seems to be a huge disconnect here. Dive professionals are extremely attentive to the environment, but they do not seem to communicate this effectively to their student divers.

It could be inferred that the curriculum provided by dive training agencies may not be a good fit.

Are we committed to sustainability in scuba diving?

• 82.2% of dive professionals surveyed claimed to be committed or very committed to the environment.
• 68.8% of scuba divers said the same.

Again, I would expect dive professionals to be even more committed than scuba divers since their business and career depend on it.

In comparison, dive professionals believe that other entities in the dive industry are less committed than they are:

• 44.4% of dive professionals surveyed rated the dive business for which they work as committed or very committed.
• 38.6% of dive professionals surveyed rated their dive training agency as committed or very committed.
• 20.0% of dive professionals surveyed rated the dive industry in general as committed or very committed.

It appears dive professionals feel like dive businesses are not doing enough on that front.

How well do we understand the aquatic environments & ecology of the underwater locations we dive in?

Although both scuba divers and dive professionals harshly judged how their scuba diving courses prepared them to understand the environment, both groups seem to believe their current knowledge to be fairly good.

• 77.8% of dive professionals reported that their knowledge of the environment was good or better than good.
• 68.8% of scuba divers said the same.

I find these numbers surprising. In my experience, a majority of divers jump into the water without knowing much about the marine life they will encounter or the ecological issues affecting the habitat they are diving in.

Where did dive professionals get their knowledge of the environment?

• 64.5% of dive professionals listed “self-taught” as a major source of knowledge of the environment.

This answers the question we had earlier. Scuba diving courses do not provide us with a proper level of knowledge about the environment, either at the scuba diver or professional levels, but we compensate by learning it ourselves.

Other sources of environmental and ecological knowledge for dive professionals are:

• 57.8% books
• 46.7% fellow dive professionals
• 44.4% online content
• 35.6% news

We should not underestimate our role in helping other dive professionals improve their knowledge of the environment.

Where would dive professionals like to get more knowledge of the environment?

Dive training agencies are under the spotlight!

Here’s where scuba diving professionals would like to get more knowledge of the environment:

• 72.7% dive training agency
• 36.4% InDepth magazine / Scubanomics
• 27.3% instructor trainer (course director)
• 18.2% DEMA/DEMA Show

It’s interesting! This could explain why one of the largest dive training agencies has recently boosted its communications about the ocean and the environment.

However, personally, I believe we shouldn’t rely too much on dive training agencies. Their focus is on selling more c-cards. Our focus is on spending quality time underwater with people.

How do dive professionals want to get more information on the environment?

• 81.8% online courses
• 81.8% webinars
• 56.8% books

The first two results are not surprising. But 61% of dive professionals would still like traditional books.

What main environmental topics do dive professionals want to understand better?

• 73.3% pollution/eutrophication
• 60.0% climate change
• 57.8% fish identification
• 51.1% coral identification
• 44.4% tropical ecosystems
• 42.2% freshwater ecosystems
• 40.0% dangerous marine life identification
• 35.6% sharks

What main environmental topics do scuba divers want to understand better?

• 64.6% pollution/eutrophication
• 52.1% tropical ecosystems
• 47.9% climate change
• 41.9% fish identification
• 41.5% coral identification
• 39.6% freshwater ecosystems
• 37.5% ocean acidification
• 35.4% dangerous marine life identification