Green Fins is an initiative that protects and conserves coral reefs through environmental guidelines that promote a sustainable diving and snorkeling industry.
Available in 11 countries globally, the United Nations-supported program is the work of PADI’s partners in dive industry sustainability, The Reef-World Foundation. Membership depends on continued improvement of environmental performance year on year, as opposed to environmental achievement status. What that means is that – regardless of where you begin – all Green Fins dive operators are committed to continual improvement in the name of healthy oceans.
As the program expands to reach more marine tourism operators in new ways, we are shining a light on the stories of those already enrolled in the certification program.
Scuba Seekers – Dahab, Egypt
Who are you and where are you based?
Scuba Seekers Diving Center first evolved as a dive club in Cairo, Egypt in 2007 and relocated years later to Dahab, South Sinai. Much more than just another dive center, we prefer to identify as a Diver Education Center, being able to offer everything including recreational and technical diving, from entry-level diving to Instructor courses.
Why is saving the ocean important to you?
Saving the ocean is very important to us since we see first-hand the richness and beauty that made all of us fall in love with the ocean and diving in the first place. Unfortunately, we can also see the changes in these beautiful ecosystems, in terms of overfishing, pollution, and algae overgrowth to name but a few!
What made you choose to become a Green Fins member?
Our mission is for our divers to swim away with a better understanding of the underwater world and what they, as individuals, can do to protect it. We believe the best way to achieve this is to provide eco-driven scuba diver training and to make meaningful marine conservation work accessible to divers of all experience levels. As soon as it was possible for us, we wanted to join Green Fins to keep following our mission and reach more people.
What has your experience been of becoming a Green Fins member?
What impact has it had on your business? Being a Green Fins member puts environmental awareness at the forefront of our business and affords the assurance of external validation of our intention to be the most ecologically responsible dive center in Dahab. It has also provided a framework for the customers and shows our commitment to continuing high-value environmental performance in all areas of our operation. However, in times of Corona, some of the changes that were implemented to control the pandemic made it difficult to maintain our more environmentally friendly operations. (e.g. no water dispenser allowed, more plastic used for covering disinfected rental gear, etc.) We still do what we can to encourage guests to stay healthy and safe in the most environmentally friendly way wherever possible.
What environmental achievements are you most proud of?
Being the first Green Fins dive center in Dahab is definitely one of our proudest achievements. We believe this, together with our other conservation efforts, we have positioned ourselves as a leader in the field of ecological awareness in Dahab. Some of our other conservation projects are described below:
- Scuba Seekers hosts weekly clean-up, or Dive against Debris, dives in our house reef. All data is collected submitted to both Project Aware and the Egyptian Government.
- Scuba Seekers also hosts regular Reef Ecology Dives and offers a Fish Survey Program for the educational side of our conservation efforts.
- In 2018, Scuba Seekers officially became the face of Ghost Diving Egypt. Like all the other Ghost Diving chapters around the world, we work to remove any nets, lines, and leftover fishing gear from the ocean. This debris not only constitutes yet more plastic waste but continues to kill marine life indiscriminately. We have previously done several clean-ups, in collaboration with Healthy Seas, to uphold our positive impact on the environment. We also regularly get ghost nets reported to us and are in the fortunate position to be able to send teams to go and collect them.
- The most recent project we’ve been working on through Ghost Diving Egypt is called Project Tire(d). We have worked to clean up 39 tires from the Red Sea, and have scouted and prepared to remove another 20 in the near future. By removing these tires, we will reduce the amount of toxic chemicals that are leaching into the ocean.
Would you recommend Green Fins to other dive operators?
Why? We would highly recommend Green Fins to other dive operators! From the staff perspective, it gives more environmental awareness and gives a deeper explanation of how to conduct briefings for divers. The materials are also very helpful for general information and tips for all levels of divers. Furthermore, Green Fins helps keep the center to be up to date in sustainability and eco-driven practices, giving annual assessments, training, and feedback to help to reduce our environmental impact.
What’s something about Green Fins that you think more people should be aware of?
How much Green Fins is already doing around the world, the impact it has on many dive centers, and the various environmental awareness materials it provides for free.
If you could ask the dive community to do one thing, what would it be?
We would ask fellow members of the dive community to be informed about the dive centers with which they choose to dive. If more divers are aware of the environmental practices and impact of the centers they are diving with, we can all work together to make the entire dive industry a more environmentally friendly sector.
Are you a Green Fins operator with a story to tell? Get in touch with Teresa at Reef-World on [email protected] with your own answers to the above questions and we’ll be glad to share your experiences with the global diving community.
