The growing dive industry
The dive industry in Singapore has been growing over the years. This years’ Asian Dive Expo (ADEX) in Singapore sold more scuba diving courses than ever recorded before. With the benefits of a growing business comes some unwanted side effects. This can include damage to coral reefs due to increased human pressure. It is pretty straight forward, the more people you have diving a reef, the higher the damage to the reef. The higher the number of boats at a dive site, the higher the amount of pollution (from toilets, oil leaks, anchors etc). Some dive shops had realised this. As a result, they wanted to help protect coral reefs by reducing their impacts by joining the Green Fins programme.
The first five dive shops from Singapore to join the programme were Gill Divers, Deep Blue Scuba, Eko Divers, 7 Scuba and Amazing Dive. These dive shops chose to be part of Green Fins because they realised that as instructors and guides they have an important responsibility in protecting coral reefs. They were also attracted by the Green Fins training, information and materials to help them protect the reefs they love.
Support from Green Fins Malaysia
There wasn’t a national Green Fins team in Singapore at the time. So, the Green Fins Malaysia national team stepped in to help. These dive shops in Singapore often visit Malaysian reefs on their dive trips. During a 3 day trip to Tioman in late April, their businesses practices were assessed by a Green Fins assessor. Training for all shop staff was then conducted back in Singapore, along with assessments of each shop. It was good to see such an interest and commitment from both the business owners as well as staff. All 5 shop managers were positive towards the feedback provided after the assessments and agreed to work towards their resulting 3 recommended actions for positive change.
We invite more dive shops in Singapore to sign up as members, and hope that the Singaporean national Green Fins team will soon be established to support local dive centres build sustainability into their business practices.
