Eco Eco Eco, are you following this movement?

The word “Eco” is everywhere these days; your car may have an eco mode, your refrigerator, vacuum cleaner and dishwasher, water filters and many other household appliances may be eco or have eco-value. But that’s not all: your plant fertilizers may be eco, your resort or diving school may be eco. Even your scuba diving gear may be Eco.

But what is Eco? Where does this word come from? How real is it and is the Eco movement worth following? All these questions and more will be addressed in this blog.

What does Eco mean?

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, Eco means habitat or environment. It comes from the Latin word “eco”, which means home. All these eco apps we see every day are aimed at preserving all life, the environment and our planet in the home. Eco or environmental awareness is important to understand the fragility of our environment and the importance of protecting it.

What is eco/environmental awareness?

Before we talk about eco awareness, we first need to talk a little about the environmental movement or environmentalism, which is an ideology that evokes the need and responsibility of people to respect, protect and preserve the natural world from us humans.

Raising environmental awareness starts with a deep understanding of our environmental issues. You can do this by following environmental news, reading books and other resources such as this blog.

There are so many examples of our environmental problems such as oil drilling, deforestation, manufacturing of plastic products.

What can we do as divers, snorkelers, ocean and sea lovers?

We can start by being aware of the problem and understanding our role in minimizing harm to our planet. PADI, for example, supports environmental innovation and awards some resorts an eco resort rating if they follow certain rules in their operations.

PADI Eco Resorts are committed to protecting the areas that guests come to see. We all want to go on a vacation where we feel good about ourselves until the end of the trip, and this can be achieved by staying at resorts or using operators whose policies and infrastructure are designed to have a low impact on the marine environment and help marine life thrive in their natural habitat.

But what about us divers? What can we do?

When you use an eco-friendly operator, you can volunteer to participate in some of their eco-friendly activities, such as seabed cleanups, replanting and maintaining coral gardens. You can also learn how to eco-dive!

Once in the water, it’s important to keep conservation in mind and remember these 7 tips:

Avoid damaging the reef while diving

Do not feed the animals

Do not handle, touch or remove anything from the water.

Collect possible waste/rubbish while diving.

Help animals in distress due to human actions

Do not approach marine life or make them feel trapped to avoid unnecessary stress.