5 Easy Ways to Live More Eco Friendly
Living a more eco friendly life doesn't mean you have to change to entirely hemp clothing and only bathe with rainwater. There are a lot of small, yet mindful changes that you can incorporate into your current lifestyle that can have a big effect on the future, so let's discuss some easy ways to live more eco friendly.
We humans consume and dispose of far too much. This much is clear. Now is the time to take a stand to reduce our impact on this beautiful planet of ours in order to preserve it for generations to come. It's a tall task, for sure, but if we face it collectively and each take the time to do our small part, we will, if nothing else, slow down the negative impact we are having on the environment.
Living a more eco friendly life doesn't mean you have to change to entirely hemp clothing and only bathe with rainwater. There are a lot of small, yet mindful changes that you can incorporate into your current lifestyle that can have a big effect on the future, so let's discuss some easy ways to live more eco friendly.
1. Carry reusable bags
A lot of grocery stores have stopped offering disposable plastic bags and are working to encourage bringing your own bags or purchasing their reusable ones. This is a great step in the right direction, and hopefully more governments and stores will start offering and enforcing this as well. At Eldon's Supermarket on Roatan, you can purchase their reusable bags (we currently have about 30 because we went through a period of time where we kept forgetting to bring our own bags and they are actually wildly useful) or request a box in lieu of plastic bags, which is also an easy way for them to get rid of all the boxes that their produce arrived in.
Now, no matter where in the world I'm at, I always make sure to keep at least one reusable bag with me (at home, it's for groceries, on holiday it's for unnecessary window shopping!). There are all sorts of fun styles available these days that are incredibly space efficient, and they often are easier to carry than disposable plastic bags because you can actually carry them on your shoulder. If I'm just buying one thing that I can just throw into my bag, I'll forgo using a bag altogether.
2. Your new life partner is a water bottle
Constantly buying bottles of water is both wasteful and expensive. Buy a water bottle that you can use for a long time and refill as you go with tap water (if it's safe to drink), filtered water (you can keep a Brita in your fridge) or from a water fountain. You can get different styles to match whatever your type is. There are some great foldable (or are they rollable?) water bottles out there that are super space efficient when they're empty, insulated stainless steel bottles so that you don't get the dreaded "sweating", and even water bottles with filters in them. A good water bottle will cost you between $20 and $40 and can last you years, and if you use it 10 or 20 times in lieu of buying bottled water, you've already broken even! And before you get all self-righteous about only being able to drink Swiss mountain water spiked with angels' tears, let me remind you that Dasani is just glorified tap water.
3. Say "no" to styrofoam
Is it weird that I go to my favorite restaurants with tupperware in tow? Maybe, but I get to go home with a box full of goodies, a clean conscience, and the restaurant doesn't have to waste a container on me! Win-win-win, guys. I obviously don't take tupperware to every single restaurant we go to, but if I know they have big portions and I know for a fact that I will be taking food home, then it's pretty easy to just bring along a box. Container technology has come quite far, so there are a lot of foldable silicone styles out there that will flatten when empty so you don't have to cart around bulky containers everywhere.
An even greater upside to using containers is that you don't have that awkward spillage that happens when you carry the styrofoam box funny and all the sauces spill out. So many wins!
4. No straws for you!
In the United States alone, we use and dispose of 500 million straws a day. That is insanity. Madness. Straws and other small plastic items aren't contained very easily and will inevitably end up in our oceans, where they will be consumed by marine animals, and even sometimes get lodged in their body parts (remember the video of the turtle with a straw painfully stuck in its nose?). All it takes is the very simple request of "no straw, please", and you can help prevent the death of turtles, dolphins and sea birds. You can do eet!
5. Be mindful
Becoming more eco conscious and lowering your waste all comes down to mindfulness. There are so many things you can do to help the planet, and most of it takes little to no effort. Take that extra second to pack a fork with your lunch. Be okay that it will take an extra few seconds to wash your resuable container. Learn to live with the extra ounce that your resuable bag will weigh. It doesn't take much effort on your part, but if everyone in the world took a little more effort, it would make an enormous impact on the planet, and our future.
So there we are, our five easy ways to live a more eco friendly life. We have very little time and a long way to go to reverse our detrimental impact on the planet, but I believe that if everyone plays a small part it in, we can create an enormous movement.
Roatan Marine Park Yearly Bracelets
In case you haven't noticed, the Roatan Marine Park is a very important part of scuba diving and of life on Roatan.
In case you haven't noticed, the Roatan Marine Park is a very important part of scuba diving and of life on Roatan.
The Roatan Marine Park is unique in that it is run by a non-governmental, non-profit organization that started out as a grassroots movements by the dive centers and local community here 10 years ago.
The Roatan Marine Park is responsible for putting in the boat moorings, running patrols to protect the reef and marine life, and working with the local community to make us a more conservation-minded island. They can do the work they do through grants, memberships, and bracelet sales.
Every year, the Roatan Marine Park sells a different color bracelet as their yearly bracelets. 2013 was white, 2014 was yellow, 2015 was black, and this year it's purple! While it's not mandatory to buy the bracelets to enter the park, it's the responsible thing to do, because it's through their work that our reefs here are so beautiful. Make sure that every time you visit, you get another bracelet to support the park. You can buy it from the Roatan Marine Park Eco Store in West End or through your dive center.
Happy diving!
The Importance of Mangroves
The Roatan Marine Park shared a great video on their Facebook page about the importance of mangroves, which we thought was a great foray to discuss the importance of mangroves, both to Roatan and to anywhere they exist, to all of you.
The Roatan Marine Park shared a great video on their Facebook page about the importance of mangroves, which we thought was a great foray to discuss the importance of mangroves, both to Roatan and to anywhere they exist, to all of you.
Mangroves are very important because they are both a source of protection and nurturing. Mangroves protect the coastline from erosion and storms, and are a haven for juvenile fish to spend their lives in before they go out to sea. Mangroves are cut down all over the world to pave the way for beachfront properties and sandy beaches without thought to the long term consequences, and even just on Roatan, we’ve seen the damaging effects of losing our mangrove forests.
Furthermore, mangroves may be the key to battle climate change. Mangroves store carbon dioxide under their roots and pump out a massive amount of oxygen, making them a vital part of the planet’s future.
The Roatan Marine Park’s work is not limited to just under the sea. They have taken over mangrove protection and re-plantation for the island of Roatan, and we’re looking forward to seeing more and more mangroves make their way back to where they belong. Mangroves are beautiful and necessary, and for our island to thrive, they must be allowed to protect our coasts, coral and marine life.
Remember to support the Roatan Marine Park so that they can continue the important work that they do. You can get daily tickets for $3 or yearly bracelets for $10, with all proceeds going towards the good work that the Roatan Marine Park does.
PSA: Before You Watch "Finding Dory"
efore you watch Finding Dory and get caught up in the Blue Tang hullabaloo, please remember that Blue Tangs belong in the ocean, not in your personal aquarium.
Well, the day that everyone has been waiting for, for literally years has arrived - Disney Pixar's Finding Dory will soon hit theaters!
Now, based on the trailers, it looks like Finding Dory has a pretty strong anti-captivity message, which we are grateful for. As dive instructors and conservationists (the two should really go hand in hand), it pains us to see animals that don't do well in captivity, like whalesharks and dolphins, held in a confined space. While some aquariums work hard to educate the public and are picky about the animals that they keep in captivity, a great deal are not and will capture anything that brings in customers and money.
So before you watch Finding Dory and get caught up in the Blue Tang hullabaloo, please remember that Blue Tangs belong in the ocean, not in your personal aquarium. Just like Clownfish sales spiked after Finding Nemo came out, the animals featured in Finding Dory, especially the Blue Tang, will be in higher demand. The biggest difference between Clownfish and Blue Tangs is that they still haven't figured out a way to breed Blue Tangs in captivity, so any Blue Tangs that you get for your aquarium will be taken off the reef somewhere, away from where they belong. Blue Tangs have a bigger travel radius than Clownfish do so they don't do well in captivity, and they are incredibly important for coral health because they eat the algae that risks suffocating the coral if left to grow unchecked, so it will be devastating to any reef system to lose them.
So please, if you watch the movie and feel inclined to see more Blue Tangs, go see them in the wild. They're actually very quirky and funny, just like Dory, although hopefully not as forgetful! We love watching the big schools of Blue Tangs descending on the reef and eating up a storm, without a care in the world if anyone else is around. If you love Dory (or Nemo, or Hank, or Destiny, or Bailey), let them just keep swimming!
Always dive with a buddy!
Just because you don't want to see Dory in captivity doesn't mean you can't have fun with it, either! For those of you more inclined to give in to Disney magic, you can also bring Dory diving with you! Nemo and Dory have been our dive buddies for five years now, following us as we dive all around the world. Just keep swimming, indeed.
5 Really Good Reasons To Protect Sharks
As scuba divers, snorkelers, surfers and spearfishermen, we make the active choice to enter their territory and therefore (should) accept the consequences of what happens to us.
We love sharks. Sharks are amazing. And despite the irrational fear that people have of sharks (damn you, Jaws!), sharks would honestly rather do their own thing and are actually afraid of people. I've been on many dives where a shark comes gliding along, minding its own business, then sees me and goes "nope, nope" and jets off in the other direction.
But even if sharks weren't wary of us and even if they weren't misunderstood, who are we to cull them? Who are we to go on a massacre when there's a shark attack somewhere? Aren't we in their territory? Aren't we imposing on them? As scuba divers, snorkelers, surfers and spearfishermen, we make the active choice to enter their territory and therefore (should) accept the consequences of what happens to us.
So without further ado, here are 5 really good reasons why we should protect sharks.
Reason 1. Sharks help maintain the reef
Sharks are an incredibly important part of the ecosystem. They keep the reef eating fish populations in check, which prevent the reef eating fish from overeating the reef. If the sharks go, then the fish populations will run rampant and the reef will get eaten away pretty quickly. The reef actually produces a huge amount of the oxygen in the air that we breathe, so without the reef, on-land populations will die as well. Grim.
Reason 2. Sharks are worth more alive than dead
Studies have shown that the worth of a shark is far more when its alive than when it's dead. While the numbers vary for each location, on average, you get roughly $100 for a dead shark (they normally just take the fins), while a living shark will bring in over 1.5 million dollars over the average lifetime. Sharks are not only good for the reef, they're good for tourism. They're good for local communities. This theory doesn't just apply to sharks, it also applies to pretty much every other animal, both on land and under the sea, like elephants, rhinos, gorillas, whales, turtles, lions...the list goes on.
Reason 3. Shark finning is incredibly cruel
Imagine you're walking down the street, minding your own business, when someone drags you onto a dinghy, cuts your limbs off and leaves you face down in shallow water, shallow enough that you can sort of lift your head out of the water so you don't drown immediately, but still enough water that you will eventually bleed out and drown at the same time. That is the closest thing I can relate to a shark's experience when it gets finned.
With the exception of nurse sharks, all sharks need to be constantly moving forward so that they can push water through their gills and breathe. When sharks are finned, their bodies are pulled up onto the boat, their fins are hacked off and then their bodies are thrown back into the water to leave more space on the boat. The sharks then slowly drown. All of this cruelty for a substance that has no flavor and no nutritional value. Shark fin is cruel and useless.
Reason 4. They're more afraid of you than you are of them
There were 12 fatal shark attacks in 2015. Do you want to know how many sharks we killed that year? Over 100 million. One hundred million sharks. 100,000,000. Versus 12 humans. Are you getting it? And every time there is a shark attack somewhere, we go on a rampage and kill every shark in the area. Why?
Sharks are misunderstood. They genuinely want nothing to do with us. The reason that shark attacks are increasing is because humans have taken a large part of their food supply because of our unsustainable fishing techniques and consumption, and so sharks are now moving closer to land to find food. We are the reason that they are moving closer to shore, and then we get upset when we see them close to shore. Does that make any sense at all?
Reason 5. Sharks are just amazing
Sharks are exquisite animals. They are the best. Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution to create the perfect marine predator, moving effortless through the water. Honestly, watching sharks cruise through the current is an incredibly life affirming event. Sharks are extraordinary, and deserve to be seen as such.
So there you have it, 5 really good reasons why we should protect sharks. I apologize for getting a little heated on this one, but shark conservation is one of the topics I'm most passionate about when it comes to the marine conservation realm. Save our sharks!
Should I buy a Roatan Marine Park yearly bracelet?
Short answer: Yes. Yes you should.
Oh, you wanted a long answer? Read on!
Short answer: Yes. Yes you should.
Long answer: Why wouldn't you buy a Roatan Marine Park yearly bracelet? They're only $10 and all the proceeds go towards the running of the park. The Roatan Marine Park is a non-profit organization that installs all the dive moorings, runs patrols to patrol the local wildlife and works with the local community to move us towards a conservation oriented island.
So if your boat ties up to a mooring, or you see a turtle or lobster or conch, or notice how the mangroves are starting to grow back...then of course you should support the Roatan Marine Park. The bracelets are only $10 and all the proceeds go directly into helping the park continue its good work. The park is one of the best run that we've seen, and we believe it has a lot to do with the fact that it's run by a non-profit, non-governmental organization full of passionate people, and we'd like to keep supporting it.
Do your part, support the park!
