A Bit of (Virtual) Spring Cleaning

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Written by Melissa Hobson

Like many people who are also stuck at home (well, mum’s home – I’ve returned to the UK while travel restrictions are in place), I’ve been doing a bit of a spring cleaning.

Unfortunately for my mother, though, this spring clean is not of the house…

Sorry mum!

Multi-tasking is a way of life for us here at Reef-World!

Here at Reef-World, we’re using this pause to our Green Fins fieldwork to take stock of where we are, the progress we want to make and how we can use this social distancing time to move forward as effectively as possible. While there’s still a long to-do list (always!), it’s surprising how much time has been freed up without fieldwork, conferences and the other events and face-to-face activities that often keep us busy.

From a Comms perspective, there were several activities we already had planned as part of our wider strategy which we’re now able to dedicate a little more time to and, hopefully, move forward more quickly as a result. One of these (and it’s a big-un!) is a thorough review of all the materials we produce as a charity to help raise awareness of environmental best practice.

Reef-World, as many of you know, is the international coordinator of the Green Fins initiative. The Green Fins initiative aims to protect and conserve coral reefs through environmentally friendly guidelines that promote a sustainable diving and snorkelling industry. We run the programme in partnership with UN Environment Programme, currently in 11 different countries but with several more on the way and demand continuing to grow.

As part of the programme, which currently has around 600 members globally, Reef-World offers a suite of tools and materials to help members and non-members alike raise awareness of environmental issues and follow best practice when it comes to sustainable marine tourism. You might have seen some of the Green Fins posters displayed in dive shops: explaining why fish feeding harms coral reefs or asking you not to use toxic sunscreens. Dive professionals might also be aware of our guidelines (which give advice on things like how to organise a cleanup event) or our newest product: the Green Fins Dive Guide e-Course. All these materials have been designed to help raise awareness of environmental issues and reduce the dive and snorkel industry’s environmental impact.

As you might imagine, we provide lots of different materials because there are many different environmental issues to cover – as well as many languages needed to help divers from around the world learn more about actions they can take to protect the reef (Did you know, the Green Fins materials are already available in traditional and simplified Chinese as well as Japanese and Korean, with Arabic coming soon?). When it comes to creating new materials, or updating old ones, we’re very much guided by you: the dive and snorkel industry.

This toolbox of materials has been developed based upon requests or suggestions from the diving industry and is always being updated to ensure it conveys the Green Fins message as effectively as possible. As a team, Reef-World is continually reviewing these materials – however, this time to pause has given us the opportunity for a deep dive.