Coral reefs are an incredibly threatened ecosystem. Reefs face a myriad of threats including climate change, ocean acidification, overfishing, and pollution. Diving is not generally considered a ‘global’ threat, but scuba divers can and do have impact on the reef while diving. As the number of scuba divers grows, the threats scuba divers they pose to the coral reefs are accumulating.
An increasing number of studies and research projects show that coral can be resilient to large scale threats, depending upon their number and severity. However, the more threats to coral survival present, the less able the coral is to survive these threats. For example, a reef might survive an.d recover from a hurricane, but it is less likely to recover if it is overfished, over-dived, bleached and polluted, or is affected by coral diseases. By minimizing your impacts as a diver while underwater and by taking actions to conserve coral reefs while you are not diving, you enable the reef to better withstand that next bleaching event or weather system.
