SCUBA and the Environment: A Paradox The relationship between SCUBA diving and environmental and marine health is a strange, tenuous, and paradoxical one. On the one hand, diving activities and the ancillary effects of diving-related tourism have threatened and in many cases, outright killed coral reef systems (McVeigh, 2018). Popular diving sites have in many cases been irreversibly damaged. For example, busy sites are known to have “more broken corals, a lower species diversity and a change in fish behavior, compared with other sites in the same areas,” (McVeigh, 2018, p. 1). On the other hand, SCUBA diving and the related travel industry may be positioned to have the most positive impact on saving those very same reefs and marine areas. Healthy coral reefs, clean water, safe sites, and sustainable tourism are all integral to the financial success of the diving industry. In fact, SCUBA leaders have been paying increased attention to the ways climate change has been affecting diving and diving related tourism. The SCUBA industry has in fact become a leader in helping showcase the effects of climate change on every aspect of marine life, as volunteer divers from around the world have been actively participating in surveys detailing their first-hand observations of changing marine life and ecosystems (De Gabriele, 2017).

Main Effects of Climate Change

SCUBA divers and scientists alike have systematically documented the most notable effects of climate change on marine life and coral reef systems. Reef death, reef bleaching, acidification, and other types of degradation of reefs is one of the main concerns. After all, dead reefs mean a dead diving industry. With reef death also comes fewer schools of fish, yet another nail in the coffin of the industry. The boats that transport divers to their sites also contribute to these problems, but climate change has been having a much more sinister, pervasive, and global impact on the industry. Some SCUBA industry leaders warn that if climate change continues apace, the entire diving industry could be washed away in just twenty years (Mowery, 2017). An industry that generates an estimated $36 billion per year cannot afford to ignore climate change (“How Climate Change Threatens Marine Tourism,” 2018). In fact, diving is one of the fastest growing tourism sectors overall McVeigh, 2018). Reef death and declining populations of fish are only part of the problem. Climate change also affects the nature...

More frequent and more devastating storms, erosion of coastal regions, and algal blooms are a few of the problems popular marine regions experience due to climate change (“How Climate Change Threatens Marine Tourism,” 2018).
Detailed Impacts

Climate change generally involves a steady warming of the ocean water temperatures, with systemic impacts on marine life throughout the world. The general pattern for marine animals is that warmer waters attract or generate greater numbers of fish species, leaving the cooler waters richer in invertebrates such as crustaceans (De Gabriele, 2017). Climate change is already causing different distribution and migration patterns of fish, with species moving into geographic zones they had otherwise avoided. The redistribution of fish among ocean waters may lead to unintended effects on the diving industry, potentially opening up new and uncharted areas for SCUBA activities but diverting attention away from the regions that had been perennially popular. Unfortunately, the results of climate change on SCUBA are not necessarily beneficial given that when new species of fish move into new areas, they disrupt the local ecosystem in dramatic ways. Like invasive species anywhere, the newcomers may prey on the endemic species or compete with predators on the same level of the food chain—either way causing potential endangerment or extinction of species (De Gabriele, 2017). Divers will cease to pay for services when the unique species of fish become extinct, or when locating key species or schools of fish becomes all but impossible due to the unpredictable nature of the way climate change impacts localized ecosystems. Mitigating damage will be all but impossible without immediately mitigating climate change.

Increased surface temperature in the world’s oceans has a major impact on the ways corals breathe and interact with the main algae species dwelling within them: zooxanthellae algae. The algae typically live within the coral cells, lending the corals their unique hues. When the coral expels waste, the algae feed off of that waste, in a classic symbiotic relationship. The algae in turn provide the coral with nutrients. When water temperatures rise, though, the coral may begin to eject the algae, causing them to starve and also causing them to lose their characteristic colors—the very same colors…