Here in Pattaya the wonderful dive site at Ao Kai has just re-opened after 3 years to allow the site to recover, I thought it would be appropriate talk about something we don’t always think about when we talking looking after reefs – Sun cream!
If you dive, snorkel, (or even swim) near corals you need look at the active ingredients in your sun cream. Many people do not know that sunscreen can damage coral. I read an article recently that said that the reefs in the Hawaiian island lone are exposed to 6000 tonnes of sun cream each year – that’s and that figure will be similar for all popular diving resorts if not worse
So why is this bad?
Studies have found that sunscreen chemicals in many popular products actually hurt coral. The main culprits are oxybenzone and octinoxate, which help us by converting sunburn-causing UV rays into harmless heat on human skin. However, once these chemicals are in the water, they actually decrease corals’ defences against bleaching, damaging their DNA and hurting their development. Basically, they have the exact opposite effect on the corals than they do on humans!
Oxybenzone starts causing damage at a concentration of 1 drop in area the size of 6 swimming pools -that’s tiny amount compared the amount we put on.
Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide (both found in many sun cream) never biodegrade. Both of which have the potential to harm corals and sea life. Some also contain mineral oil (petroleum), which slowly biodegrades and is known to be harmful or fatal to some aquatic life and birds.
Obviously its not just sun cream that killing the reefs, but if we all talk a little extra care with the avoids sun creams with harmful ingredients we can reduce the stress on the reefs here in Pattaya, Thailand as whole and everywhere else we dive.
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These are the chemicals to look out for:
Butylparaben
Oxybenzone
Octinoxate
4-methylbenzylidene camphor
Zinc oxide
Titanium dioxide
What every you do stop using sun cream; just type “reef safe sun cream” or “aquatic safe sun cream” into Mr Google and you will get lots of suggestions of safe sun cream to use. Even if you don’t think you burn in the sun, we need to protect our skins from the long effects of the sun just as much as we need to protect the reefs. Just remember if it has any of the chemicals above just leave on the beach or the boat, we want to keep the Diving in Pattaya the best that it can be for years to come.
As with everything we write about here at Dive Station Pattaya pop in have a coffee and a chat and we’ll point you in the right direction.
