Eco Friendly Diving Phuket – How You Can Help

Eco Friendly Diving Phuket – How You Can Help

Eco friendly Diving Phuket With Local Dive Thailand

Help preserve our reefs and go eco friendly diving in Phuket. This starts before you even get on our diving boat or even leave your home countries for your well earned holiday. A few simple and inexpensive steps can really make a difference. The “everybody else is doing it” line really doesn’t cut it as an excuse anymore. Below are a few suggestions that can reduce your impact on our reefs.

Sunblocks

Oxybenzone (also known as benzophenone-3) is a common ingredient in many sunblocks and has detrimental affect on coral reef health. We sale an excellent brand of reef friendly sunscreen on our boat so you can buy on the day.

What You Can Do:

  • Purchase environmentally friendly sunblocks such as – Reef Repair, True Natural, Suntegrity, Thinksport, Coola, All Terrain
  • Stay in the shade!
  • Minimise Use – Only apply sunblock to exposed areas if you’re using a wetsuit or rashguard

Our Phuket diving boat has two indoor saloons and a large shaded open deck. Staying out of the sun obviously reduces the chance of getting burnt and lowers the risk of dehydration. Staying properly hydrated is extremely important when diving. You are of course welcome to use our sundeck but keep your time up there to a minimum and use a bit of common sense.

Plastic Bags

Yeah, you’ve all had this one rammed down your throat in recent years. You may reduced your use at home but we see many travellers leaving those good habits in the airport departure lounge. Advertising campaigns and government policy on this issue is very low key in this part of the world but so set a good example, although you will have a bit of a battle on your hands…

Convenience stores in Thailand do tend to over serve on plastic bags. We can only assume that staff get a commission of some kind for their distribution. You can honestly get two separate bags when buying a yogurt and a chocolate bar! This is totally beyond me, these peace loving dairy based snacks will not engage in an epic fight to the death if they have to share the same space. I’m sure they’ll get along just fine.

What You Can Do:

  • Bring a reusable bag with you
  • Politely refuse plastic bags (You’ll have to make a point of this, you’re unlikely to be given the option)
  • Buy a reusable bag in the store (Can be found under 10cm of dust in a hidden corner somewhere)
  • Choose a store that uses biodegradable bags (Some Tesco Lotus Stores)

Keep Your Hands To Yourself!

Every responsible dive centre in the world will politely tell you to avoid touching anything when you’re diving and our Phuket tour leaders will certainly remind you on the morning boat briefing. The obvious reason is to preserve the environment but it’s also very much for your own safety. We have plenty of venomous animals in the waters around Phuket, there’s even have a snail that has enough venom to kill 20 adults (why???).

What You Can Do:

  • Don’t touch
  • Definitely don’t try to collect seashells (see above)
  • Stay a comfortable distance from the reef

Listen To Advice!

If you haven’t dived for a while or you’re a beginner or even trying for the first time then please except advice from experts. Racha Noi and Racha Yai have plenty of calm sandy areas where you can get used to being in the water again without damaging yourself or the environment. Although Phi Phi is a relatively easy dive location it can sometimes be a bit tricky so sure you’ll see more wildlife and coral but you can also easily unintentionally cause damage.

For the non-swimming, scared of water and allergic to fish Discover Scuba Diving students (it happens) then please go to Racha Noi/Yai, the water is very clear, calm and there’s plenty of wildlife to see. We guarantee you’ll have a great day.

Diving is fantastic fun but there are inherent dangers, listen to the professionals, don’t try to run before you can walk and you’ll come away with an incredible memory and negate any danger.

What You Can Do:

  • Take a refresher
  • PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty
  • If you feel you have buoyancy issues then let us know – we’re happy to help
  • Dive with dedicated and fun PADI professionals (That would be us)

Local Rules

The Phuket diving industry has to follow strict government rules. Put in place for the good of the environment and if you don’t follow them you could find yourself with a hefty fine or a guest of the local police for a night or two. People have been prosecuted on the strength of video evidence, underwater cameras and gopro’s are everywhere nowadays – there’s always somebody watching…

Local Rules To Follow:

  • Please don’t feed the fish
  • Please don’t collect marine souvenirs
  • Don’t throw trash overboard

All of the above can result in a fine of THB 100,000. The last thing we want is any of our guests to have a bad experience in Thailand so please help us follow the rules.

Our Boat

We try to be as environmentally conscious as possible, that begins in the morning with the tour leaders briefing. Our crew don’t use any plastic disposable cups, plates or cutlery. We have recycle bins for cans and any plastic bottles that you may bring on-board (please avoid this if you can). There’s no harmful soaps or shampoo’s in our toilets and we have septic tanks in our toilets.

If there’s anything else you feel we can do then please contact us after being on our boat and if possible we will action it. Hope to see you on-board soon.

Contact Us Now

By Justin Hartrey

I've been enjoying the incredible marine life in our oceans for over 25 years. 13 years ago I became a PADI professional in Phuket, hoping to introduce as many people as possible to the incredible beauty of the seas.

Having been fortunate enough to dive all over south east and especially Thailand, I enjoy sharing my diving experiences and passion on this blog.

Originally from Bristol in the UK, I swapped the frigid waters of the North Atlantic for the warm tropical seas around Thailand and can confidently say that I wouldn't go back

Posted in The Archives on .

Popular Services

similan island liveaboard mq5

Manta Queen 5

Manta Queen 5 now visits the top scuba diving sites in the North Andaman. Previously the schedule took in 3 night trip just around the nine Similan Islands. Well you can't really go all that way without visiting Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock. The new 3 day/3 night schedule reflects just that. Manta Queen 5 now covers all the very best dive sites at a great price. The 26m long, 5m long Manta Queen 5 takes just 22 guests in very c [...]

Find Out More
the best scuba diving team in phuket

The Dive Team At Local Dive Thailand

A happy dive team makes for happy guests. Sir Richard Branson is famed for saying that you "should train your staff so that they could leave, but treat them well enough so they don't" and that is the motto we work with here at Local Dive Thailand. We might be a large, tour leading scuba diving agency but we know the value of quality staff. Some of our dive team have been with us since we first started operating. Many have been diving in Phuke [...]

Find Out More

Daily Schedules

M/V Kepsub Schedule

Jobs @ Local Dive Thailand

Local Dive Thailand is one of Phuket's fatest growing & most vibrant scuba diving operations, we are always looking for quality staff to join us, so feel free to have a look at our jobs listing page.

Job Listings

Contact LDT

Local Guides, Local Knowledge, Local Experiences

Don't trust your diving to amateurs or freshly minted dive guides, dive with local experienced experts from Local Dive Thailand. Our Scuba Diving Phuket Tours will take you to see the rarest of the rare critters, you will be amazed by the macro life our guides can find, in the secret places only they know. To put it in perspective, if you were going to climb Mount Everest you would certainly hire a local sherpa to lead the way & keep you safe. Diving is similar because there is absolutely no substitute for local experience & local knowledge, Local Dive Thailand's guides are Phuket's Sherpa's of the Andaman Sea!

Learn More About Us

Scuba Diving Phuket, Phi Phi & Thailand

When talking about Scuba Diving in Phuket, you should believe the hype, many seasons we have had Whale Sharks grace us on our regular and easy to reach dive sites and on a good day you can add Sea Horses, Sea Moths, Snake Eels, Frog Fish & Octopus to what you can see on any given dive and so much more. If we are heading to Phi Phi Island for the day, you can possibly see Hawksbill Sea Turtles and Black Tip Reef Sharks, also don't forget the King Cruiser, 84 meters of beautiful wreck and the most amazing reef nursery for fish and nudibranch. Local Dive Thailand day trip tours to these locations are not to be missed when you are scuba diving Phuket, get in touch with us and book an 'awesome' day of diving.

Book Your Day Trip

Related News From Local Dive Thailand

See why we are Thailand's leading scuba diving Phuket tour provider, stay up to date & watch out for news & special liveaboard offers!

giant manta ray in thailand Rare & Peculiar Critters

Giant Manta Rays In Thailand

The magnificent giant manta rays are regular visitors to Thailand but despite their enormous size can be difficult to find around Phuket. These giant ocean creatures are for many scuba divers the ultimate underwater encounter. If you've ever been fortunate enough to spend time with these enigmatic rays then you'll know why. They're big! The largest ever recorded had a whopping wingspan of 9m. That's not normal but they still average a [...]

Read Full Story
a great days diving at phi phi and shark point Amazing Local Dives

A Great Days Diving At Phi Phi And Shark Point

Thankfully there was no wind or waves on our way to divingPhi Phi and Shark Point. Although grey and overcast, a comfortable journey ensued with the hope of better conditions under the waves than we had above. We weren't to be disappointed. Visibility in the bay at Koh Bida Nok was excellent. A quick swim up into the shallows brought a brief glimpse of a couple of blacktip reef sharks cruising around in less than 3m of water. Heading deepe [...]

Read Full Story
lionfish in phuket Rare & Peculiar Critters

Lionfish – A Smart Fish?

We call them lionfish on this side of the world but they're also none as firefish, zebrafish, butterfly cod and turkeyfish (????) in other areas. We tend to lump them together but there are quite a few different species that we find around Phuket. All have stunning warning colours, are very photogenic, show little or no fear of divers and have toxic fins that can pack quite a punch. Fortunately lionfish are easy to spot and stings are very ra [...]

Read Full Story

Local Dive Thailand Office In Phuket


Find Us On Google Maps