Survey | Dive Industry Statistics | Sustainability
Survey Results: Sustainability in The Scuba Diving Industry
Understanding scuba divers & dive professionals’ relationship to the environment and commitment to sustainable tourism.
Darcy Kieran is the author of the handbook “Your Career and/or Life as a Scuba Diving Instructor: How to Make a Good Living Out of Your Passion for Scuba Diving” and a unique advanced logbook & checklists for scuba divers, divemasters & instructors.
InDepth Magazine and the Business of Diving Institute are collaborating on a series of scuba diving industry surveys to better understand where we stand on key issues, identify workable solutions, increase awareness of opportunities, and fuel discussions among dive professionals.
We thank the following dive industry leaders for supporting this initiative: Shearwater, DAN Europe, and GUE.
We conducted a survey on sustainability in the dive industry in preparation for an upcoming InDepth article by Dr. Alex Brylske.
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 said their scuba training courses had prepared them well or very well regarding aquatic environments.
- Only 22.9% of scuba divers said they had been well or very well prepared to understanding 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 hill prepared.
How are we training new scuba divers?
- Only 18.8% of scuba divers said that the dive instructor in their initial entry-level scuba diving certification course was interested or 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 it very well to their student-divers.
It’s a bit early to assign blame, but it could be inferred that the curriculum provided by the dive training agencies may simply not fit the bill.
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 is our knowledge of the aquatic environments & ecology of the underwater locations you 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 the dive professionals said 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 having no idea about the marine life they will encounter or ecological issues with 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.
So this answers the question we had above. Scuba diving courses do not provide us with a proper level of knowledge on the environment, both at the scuba diver and at 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
So, 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 their 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 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 in 2022! 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 idenfication
- 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
- 41.7% fish identification
- 41.7% coral identification
- 39.6% freshwater ecosystems
- 37.5% ocean acidification
- 35.4% dangerous marine life identification
Who answered the sustainability vs. scuba diving survey?
We had 118 respondents split almost equally between scuba divers (48.3%) and dive professionals (51.7%).
39.1% of participants were residents of Europe, and 32.6% from the USA.
9.8% of respondents had been certified for less than 5 years, 18.5% between 5 and 10 years ago, and 71.7% had been scuba diving for over 10 years.
Also from Darcy Kieran:
- Handbook: Your Career and/or Life as a Scuba Diving Instructor: How to Make a Good Living Out of Your Passion for Scuba Diving.
- Logbook: Advanced Scuba Diving Logbook with Checklists for certified scuba divers, divemasters & dive instructors.
- Handbook: Advanced Guide to SPF Scuba Diving for Scuba Divers, Divemasters & Dive Instructors: Develop Better Scuba Diving Skills, Dive Safer, Save Money & Have More Fun!
- Handbook: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To Scuba Diving: How to Increase Safety, Save Money & Have More Fun!
- Logbook: STARTER Scuba Diving Logbook with Checklists while getting your open water diver certification!
- Reference book: Scuba Diving Industry Market Reports, Data & Statistics.
Side note: During your surface intervals, have a look at my novels with a scuba diving twist, starting with “Mystery of The Blue Dragon” and “Shadows on Ocean Drive.”
You could help the dive industry by taking part in ongoing dive industry surveys. You will also find results from our past scuba diving market studies here.
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What now? Have a look at the complete Scubanomics Table of Contents.
