Why is Reef Safe Sunscreen so Important?

Reef Safe Sunscreen or Bust!

By now, we all know that global climate change has endangered our coral reefs due to rising ocean temperatures, as the stress of warm water causes corals to bleach. But did you know that scientists are now saying chemically based sunscreen can induce the same bleaching response in coral?!

When corals absorb these toxic chemicals found in our common sunscreens, it creates a similar reaction to that of warmer water temperatures created by global warming: bleaching.On top of that, the presence of these chemicals allows viruses to thrive, subjecting corals to catch infections leading to bleaching and ultimate death.

In fact, scientist are estimating up to 14,000 tons of sunscreen are introduced into the ocean each year! That is something absurd like 60 million bottles of sunscreen a year… UMM WOW

It is metrics like this that recently prompted Hawaii to place a ban on all sunscreen containing Oxybenzone and Octinoxate (the two most commonly harmful chemicals), taking effect in 2021. While this is a great start, we still have a lot more work to do… and here at Coconut Tree Divers Roatan we are committed to keeping our reef as healthy as possible!

What makes a sunscreen reef safe?

There are two types of sunscreen:

Chemical based. (the bad guy) These include two major ingredients used to block UV rays: Oxybenzone and Octinoxate (the same chemicals banned in Hawaii). Many of your major brands will have these ingredients included and are very harmful to the coral reefs you have traveled so far to see! *Beware that while these are the two most common harmful chemicals, they are not the only harmful chemicals used in sunscreen… more on this below!*

Mineral based. (The good guy) Also known as physical sunscreens, these products use zinc oxide and titanium dioxide and are considered “safe” for coral reefs. *It is important to use mineral sunscreens that are “non-nano” in size because any mineral sunblocks having a partical size below 100 nanometers can be consumed by corals*

Unfortunately, the term’s “reef safe” or “reef friendly” are not regulated… meaning you may not always be able to trust a product advertising this label.

It is important to read the active ingredients found in your mineral sunscreen to check for the absence of harmful ingredients found on the HEL list (a list of chemicals that are known pollutants in many different environments). Below are the most common HEL list ingredients that you do NOT want to find in your mineral based reef safe sunscreen…

Oxybenzone
Octinoxate
Octocrylene
4-methylbenzylidene camphor
PABA
Parabens
Triclosan
Any nanoparticles or “nano-sized” zinc or titanium (if it doesn’t explicitly say “micro-sized” or “non-nano” it is most likely nano-sized and a no go)
Any form of microplastic, such as “exfoliating beads”

SO.. What can I do to help protect our coral reefs?

Most people want to know what they can do to help protect the very thing they came on vacation to enjoy. The good news is there is plenty you can do to make a difference…

Use less sunscreen

Okay this sounds terrifying… especially if you tend to turn into a lobster like me! Protecting your skin from UV rays is 100% crucial and should not be compromised. However, sunscreen is not your only option. Wearing items to minimize your sunscreen use can drastically reduce the amount of sunscreen introduced into the ocean. Think hats, wet suits, rash guards and even simply putting on a T-shirt while snorkeling!

Apply sunscreen 10-15 minutes before entering the water

This allows for the sunscreen to sink in, dry and therefore a less chance of washing straight into the ocean.

Choose the correct reef safe sunscreen

Be active in reading the back of your sunscreen. Look for ‘reef safe’ labels as well as ensuring none of the harmful ingredients listed above are used in the making of your sunscreen. This may sound labor intensive but cute little guys like this Sargassum Trigger Fish pictures below need us to do our part so they can continue to have a healthy home….!

To help you out, here is a great article with not only more information but an awesome list of reef safe sunscreen options.

Spread the word

Educate your friends, family and fellow scuba divers about the importance of protecting our coral reef. Luckily here in Roatan, we have some of the healthiest reef around and we intend to keep it that way!

So find the perfect time to come join us at Coconut Tree Divers and make sure to bring your reef safe sunscreen!! If you forget to pick up a bottle at home, our friend Andrea makes a line of all natural sunscreen and skincare products right here on the island called Aegis All Natural, a great option to keep our reef healthy!

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Picture credit : 1, 2 All other photos by our very own Alex Harper-Graham

We would love to have you come dive with us!

For more info on Coconut Tree Divers, schedules, courses, and pricing head to our homepage HERE!

To make a reservation head to our online reservation page HERE!

Report Cards Are In

Scuba Diving

We were never fans of report cards growing up. A percentage or a letter used as a representation of who we are as people and what we might be capable of was largely useless. Whether our report cards brought us praise or groundings we found they weren’t really useful for telling our story, what we did right, what we did wrong and how could we could improve.

When the Healthy Reefs Initiative began the Mesoamerican Reef Health Report Cards 10 years ago, they wanted to create an understanding of the management of an ecosystem that sustains our culture, fisheries, coastal protection, and tourism. The HRI completes these surveys to create accurate, science based knowledge to inform dialogue and collective management in the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR). Unlike our school grades that gave us meaningless percentages and letters based on performance, this report card teaches us where we are going wrong and how we can change for the better.

Ian Drysdale (Representative for Honduras in the HRI) and his team made our boat Pot Licker their ‘home’ for a week as they completed this years reef health investigation in Roatan. To the inexperienced eye it looked as though they had an obsession with PVC, slates, and rubber bands but we knew that although that may be true, it was their love for the reef that had those volunteers jumping 4-5 times a day to survey over 25 sites in Roatan alone. The heroes involved this year were a mix of students from mainland and local conservationists who gave their time, energy, and expertise to successfully complete this years survey. Each volunteer was trained through a program called AGRRA (Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment) who have developed a standardized assessment with the ability to be applied to many different reef types.

Extremely simplified explanation of survey methods

Ouch, that’s a lot of yellow.

In understanding and comparing changes in benthic, coral, and fish indicators using this AGGRA method, the Report Card has been able to collect and compare data giving us a real long-term picture of what has been happening in our waters.

The chart to the left was taken from the 2018 MAR Report Card and represents the surveys conducted by the team to quantify our reef health. Honduras was given a 3.3/5 in the Reef Health Index and was one of the few areas surveyed to experience decline since 2015.

The majority of the volunteers had helped complete the surveys previous and were pretty well informed with the issues in Roatan. The week of the survey was sympathetically rain filled and added a lot of ambience to the disappointed faces, but this crew was much more interested in the positive aspects. On one of the last days we were huddled under the shelter of Potlicker, sharing sips of warm tea, to discuss just why we were experiencing a decline.

First off, they said, Roatan was doing a lot of things right.

Amazingly our coral coverage was some of the best in the Caribbean and that part seems to have held. The reason? Our Marine Park. The Roatan Marine Park (RMP) has been doing a heck of a lot more than putting in your mooring balls. They are patrolling, educating tourists, developing our communities and changing the way we use plastics. They do this through the continued support of sponsors, visitors, and community. Reasons to support them, in whatever way we can, whether it’s through donation or active participation is being proven by these studies, and it’s awesome.

What is not so awesome is that Roatan has too much macroalgae.

According the report card, this is our number one ‘Calls to Action’. It’s one of corals biggest competitors here, and it’s growing and spreading at a very serious rate.

Fleshy macroalgae in Roatan is blanketing areas of the reef, completely taking over the environment. In small quantities the aptly named ‘fleshy’ algae provides food and oxygen exchange, but human intervention has tipped the balance invariably in it’s favour. Wonderfully, their data, doesn’t just prove we have too much algae, it also tells us why.

Turns out, it’s shit. Not shit the expletive, shit the excrement. West End is the only area that adheres to fecal health standards in all of Roatan. Even the main city of Coxen Hole is only about 10% connected to it’s treatment facility. This doesn’t mean that there are little turds floating around everywhere else, but we as humans happen to excrete nutrients and those nutrients are changing the environment around our island. With cruise ship traffic, tourism, and immigration increasing, the volume of defecation on our reef is also increasing. This provides the perfect conditions for macroalgae to grow.

In Half-moon Bay, they said they have seen and confirmed the improvement to reef health since the establishment of a wastewater system and all the houses aren’t even connected (although, that’s the goal!) . Only 15% of blackwater in the Caribbean is currently being treated, so it’s pretty cool that our little island is a part of that. If we can do it through the efforts of our community members, we hope that our grassroots example will spread and our island can be a role model in effective solutions.

Once the algae has been sorted to insure the non offending critters are returned to the water, it can even be used as fertilizer! HAWAII’S DIVISION OF AQUATIC RESOURCES

To deal with the algae we already have they offered the possible solution of using reef weeders or underwater vacuums. These ‘super-suckers’ will allow us to fully remove the algae leaving space for new coral to form and suffocating coral to flourish. Hawaii has already been implementing these vacuums to increase reef health in their own areas and are open to sharing their knowledge in an effort to improve ocean environments around the world.

You can’t tell because of the lights but this bad boy was caught on a night dive here in Roatan by one of our regular guests!

The next step that is still being explored, is the re-introduction of our pointy little friends; the Long Spined Urchin. Our sneakiest and spikiest algae eaters were wiped out by disease in 1983 have seen very still seen very little comeback in our area. The team was very enthusiastic for re-intro as an option. Herbivorous fish numbers like parrot fish and blue tangs are up, but without our urchins feeding in the hard to reach spots, it’s unlikely the natural balance can be restored.

It was amazing to get involved with this years Report Card. Not only did we get to see some of the most enchanting dive sites in the MAR, we got to hang out with the important and amazing individuals who are working everyday to ensure the future of our reef. Although these solutions are simple, we know that implementing them is going to be a lot hard work. We look forward to helping these guys out as these projects move forward, channeling our love and knowledge into this world that we call home!

We just want to say a big thank you to everyone who is doing their part. When it comes to the environment and trying to save it, we get it, some of us weren’t born to be the heroes of epics but we all fight our own daily battle to improve the world around us and that is amazing. Each person has their own impact and we thank you for yours. We also want to thank all the organizations working with our communities planting coral, working with our governments and cleaning up garbage. It’s important and you are important.

Thanks Again, to Ian and his team for keeping the world up to date with our reef. This information will allow our guests and divers to engage with our island as they enjoy the beauty that we have been afforded through the efforts of many, and understand the work that they are doing. Thank you for showing us a world with solutions and a world with hope.

A list of sponsors who all contributed to the 2018 Report Card!

So long and thanks for all the fish!

If you want to learn more about ways you can help you can always contact us at [email protected] and we would be happy to answer questions about how you can get involved on your holiday. If you just want to come down and see some of the healthiest reefs in the world, check out our websites for package options. Our shop is located in Halfmoon Bay and we offer several conservation courses and complete regular Dive Against Debris course and volunteer dives. As always my source information is included in the page with links to the relevant sections.

Rachael Sorochan

We would love to have you come dive with us!

For more info on Coconut Tree Divers, schedules, courses, and pricing head to our homepage HERE!

To make a reservation head to our online reservation page HERE!

Your First Beer is Your Last Dive

Scuba Diving

All these gorgeous flavours are available at the Roatan Wine Room , which we will be plugging relentlessly as this article was partially inspired by the owner!

Diving to drink…

Drinking and diving is a pretty serious no no, for obvious reasons. This blog post is not going to cover that today. What we’re doing today is more along the lines of diving for the sake of drinking. For those of you who have spent time around Coconut Tree you may know of a time-honoured tec tradition of leaving behind a bottle of wine on your final deep dive. The idea came from a couple of guests that had come down to us from Spain that had said where they dive, it was common for staff to deposit bottles of wine underwater on the ocean floor, the purpose being, to improve the taste. Now the honest truth, we did absolutely no research into these claims initially, but the idea sounded cool so we decided to make it our thing too.

This is the Josie J of Roatan. It unfortunately didn’t have any champagne aboard, but it’s still pretty cool

Inspiration

The reason we followed the suggestions of these divers has some obvious inspirations. Discovering shipwrecked champagne and pirate rum are the things of adult day dreams. A bottle of Heidsieck 1907 sold for 275 000 USD at auction, and was one amongst over 2000 varieties discovered on a single shipwreck in the Gulf of Finland. Apparently some of them even tasted pretty good. A British ship sunk in the 1760’s is thought to be filled with bronze canons and gold coins, but it’s the thousands of litres of possibly undrinkable rum that has a lot of collectors vying for it’s recovery.

We know our bottles aren’t going to hold the same sort of history as that of a sunken ship, but the idea of it spending time stored in a place where few in the world are qualified to travel has its own set of mysteries. It’s cool of course but, was it actually as the Spanish divers said? Does it improve the taste?

A promotional photo of Vina Maris, not sure how they got that fireworm there…

Underwater Wine Storage

One of the OG winemakers to experiment with this process was also from Spain, Raúl Pérez. He started by sinking bottles for up to 60 days in the bay near his vineyards which now sell for up to 138 USD a bottle. His company however, has reduced the amount of product put in the ocean after a huge amount of them spoiled in the sea (something we have certainly had happen to us, but more on that later).

Viña Maris another winery in Spain has dedicated themselves entirely to underwater wine storage claiming the the “salinity has mineral nuances”. You can even book wine tours that begin with SCUBA excursions to see the underwater cellars. A Napa Valley wine company, Mira has bottles selling for 500 USD a bottle, the same bottle aged on land; 50 USD. The reason? It is said to mature the wine, turning “a 2009 into a 2007”.

So what is the science behind the oceanic benefits?

Wine is ideally stored at 12.8C (55F), as it allows the wine to ‘mature’ at the correct rate, anything warmer can cause it to ferment too quickly and spoil it. The ocean tends to be cold and relatively temperature controlled depending on the locations and depths. Light is another big bad that can increase the rate of aging making the darkness of the ocean a bonus for wine storage.

The final effect is oxygen, too much or too little can cause the wine to taste different levels of bad, 6ppm ( that’s parts per million for us non science folks) being the ideal amount. This appropriate oxygenation during the aging process is controlled by the cork (synthetic or natural), allowing only tiny amounts to pass through. The ocean has relatively low levels of oxygen so less should be diffusing into the liquid.

It’s good to know that we weren’t crazy to follow this initial advice. We have experimented with varying degrees of success usually leaning towards the failing side. Most recently, on Valentine’s Day of last year Monty and Alex dropped a bottle at their favourite spot upon Alex’s completion of her Tec course. This romantic story contributes to the idea that in the end it isn’t just about aging a perfect wine, but about what it can mean to us and our relationship with the ocean.

It did get slightly less romantic when we brought it up and the wine tasted like ass.

Why were we failing?

Originally we assumed it was the sea water leeching into the bottles so we tried a mixture of duct tape and candle wax and the result; still the flavour of ass.

This is when we decided to embark on this research, if duct tape can’t fix it, what can?

We did have a suspicion that our water temperature might be a little warm for wine storage so we looked for examples closer to home. A Shipwreck from 1864 off the coast of Bermuda, the Mary-Celestial was the closest we could find. The bottles recovered apparently looked super cool but the taste was not so nice.

Master Sommelier, Paul Roberts was quoted saying;

“When we decanted it, the cork pretty much crumbled and you immediately knew the vast majority was now ocean water.”

The tasting notes apparently included words like ‘crabwater’ and ‘gasoline’. In fancy sommelier language, this was exactly what our wine was tasting like! Turns out, the water here, just as in Bermuda is too warm.

Local wine expert and technical diver Lauren Schneidewind said;

“The wine would have cooked at 83F (28C), wine really does need to be stored at a much cooler 55F (12.8C). Rum however, is made at hotter temperatures and has roots from hotter climates and can withstand heat better than wine”

Rum?

Now, there was a thought. Flor De Cana is aged at the base of a volcano in Nicaragua so we imagine she was right about the heat. Lauren said she didn’t think that the rum would necessarily improve, but at least it wouldn’t spoil.

Camper English creator of the website Alcademics summarized a seminar held at the Tales of Cocktail event about how liquor and spirits age over time. He confirmed what Lauren had said that the rum would not begin to be effected negatively by temperature until about 37.8C (100F) but is ideally stored at 4.44C (40F). That, and the darkness at depth make our Roatan waters not necessarily the best, but definitely not the worst. For rum oxygenation in the bottle can cause an undesirable vinegar like aroma, so as long as we insured the bottle retained the manufacturer seal, all points to the bottle at the very least, remaining the same.

It may not be as exciting knowing that our unique storage method hasn’t created some sort of liquor revolution but that won’t take away from our tradition.

It’s good to know now how these bottles will not just hold a little bit of our own history, but an enjoyable and drinkable beverage. It’s also not a bad excuse to buy a fancy bottle of rum in the name of diving. If our calm warm water is not perfect for wine storage for diving at least, it’s unbeatable.

This little photo bomber got Lauren on her way down to place her Zacapa bottle, maybe he was mad she didn’t share. Alexandra HG Photography

To learn more about courses or discovery experiences check out our website. For more updates, photos, and videos from the gang you can follow us on our Facebook and Instagram.

Bonus Story

At the time of our initial experiments wine options were few and far between on Roatan, instead we decided to try Tree’s homemade mango ‘wine’. We took the clear moonshine-like Mango beverage and gave it a shot. The bottle had a plastic cork, it was stored at 18m (60ft) and was left there for 6 months. This would have been a lot easier back then as it was less likely to be discovered by other divers, that being the main reason that it’s our tec divers who have upheld it since then. Monty recalls the liquid going from clear to almost lemonade type turbidity. It also, significantly improved the taste.

We aren’t sure why it worked, mostly because we aren’t really sure what the chemical make up of Tree’s concoction was, but it did certainly inspire us to keep up with the tradition.

All sources used are linked in the section that is applicable. Thanks Again to Lauren of Roatan Wine Room for answering all my questions and the crew at the shop for arguing all the science with me. Alexandra HG, a big thanks for providing me with photo and fodder for these posts. As always thanks to those who I abuse for editing, I have an over use of comma problems. If you have any questions or ideas for posts you would like to see, don’t hesitate to contact us through our Facebook!

We would love to have you come dive with us!

For more info on Coconut Tree Divers, schedules, courses, and pricing head to our homepage HERE!

To make a reservation head to our online reservation page HERE!

Technical Advanced Trimix Diving

The Shearwater Perdix multi-gas dive computer worn by all the staff @roatan tec center.

Wondering what its like planning and diving to 100mt/333ft

Finding the right mind set to prepare for a technical advanced trimix dive to 100mts can take days, and we have to complete build up dives to reach our goal. To plan and dive to 100mt/333ft our day starts with another gallon of water consumed for breakfast….. hold the coffee for the week, it dehydrates you! The night before was spent drinking copious amounts of H2O and rest. Mind needs to be sharp as we are entering a realm of crush depth for the dive equipment we are using. Pee test in the morning, any signs of dehydration and the dive is off….. Clear pee… Alright, dive is a go! We have calculated out the ideal gas blend for that depth using our desktop decompression software (V-Planner). We need to eliminate the oxygen content as it starts to become toxic below 66mt / 218ft, (I know I can dive deeper on air and not be concerned about oxygen toxicity, but that’s a different story all together). We need to replace the nitrogen as well, after hydrogen, helium is the second lightest and second most abundant element in the observable universe, being present at about 24% of the total elemental mass, which is more than 12 times the mass of all the heavier elements combined. Whatever, put it our scuba tanks and call it Trimix, a mixture of helium, oxygen, and nitrogen. A shorten version, we are going to dive TMx 10/60, 10% oxygen, 60% helium, 29% nitrogen. I know right, 10% will not sustain life on surface, well done….. So, we need a travel gas that we can breathe on the surface and a deep deco gas. We calculate out that we will blend a TMx 18/15 as our travel gas, and not switch until we reach 1.4ata for the oxygen content, meaning our switch depth is 68mt / 223ft. With now 3 tanks on us we need decompression gases to accelerate our decompression, two most common deco gases 50/50 and 100% Oxygen. So, a total on this dive of 6 tanks that we will carry and safely switch to each regulator, because if not there’s no coming home. An instant killer in technical diving, respect your gas switches!

On surface before starting the dive we perform a full gas shutdown drill and a modified out of air drill to keep our minds sharp. Its going to take roughly 5 minutes to reach bottom with one gas switch and the way down. We are descending into a dive site called “The gateway to hell” although it looks like a stairway to heaven.

On the descent we roll through the first thermocline at 70mts / 230ft, a deep dark cold feeling rushes over you. We continue on the descent, staring into a crack in the earth that has been there since the ice age. 30mt / 100ft still on the descent, we hit the second thermocline at 88mts / 290ft. The water temp is now reading 24c / 76f, I know it’s cold to us, but still pretty warm at those depths. This is where time is now starting stand still, every breath were taking in 10 times that of the surface, the high amount of helium squeaks through the second stage. I am sitting at 100mts / 333ft, staring into the darkness and beauty of what the ocean has created in front of me. My mind is sharp analyzing all potential problems that could occur, however the high content of it is making me slightly light headed. A feeling one could not describe to a person that has never felt the deep like this.

One minute warning before the long ascent to the surface, focus…. Situational awareness has me checking time, gas supplies, depth and ascent rates to follow. Our bottom time is up, check and record pressures, within my rule of thirds we ascend. We are know in a critical zone as we ascend up the crack monitoring an above average ascent rate. Pass through the second thermocline and a rush of warm water warms us up, we reach our switch depth and safely switch to our deep decompression gas Tmx18/15. From now on we ascend no faster than 6mts/min. Whilst decompressing in the deep waters we constantly are monitoring each other and ourselves for any unusual behavior or symptoms, to much can wrong in this portion on the dive. @ runtime 29min of the dive we have a gas switch to 50/50 mix that will start to speed up the washout of nitrogen and helium, and @ runtime 41min of the dive we switch to 100% Oxygen for an even more accelerated gas tissue washout. At the completion of the dive 60min, we signal each other that we have completed our decompression schedules and we all feel that no DCS signs or symptoms. Before ascending we need to finish off the dive with a proper ascent to the surface. An additional 2min @ 5mt/15ft, 2min @ 3mt/10ft, and 1min @ 1.5mt/5ft. Once on surface we continue to breath down our Oxygen for a safety factor.

A look at the schedule that V-Planner has created for us to follow. However we still have our multi-gas dive computers, with back ups.

Dec to 220ft                (3)   Trimix 18/15 60ft/min descent.
Dec to 300ft       (5)   Trimix 10/60 60ft/min descent.
Dec to 333ft               (5)   Trimix 10/60 60ft/min descent.
Level 333ft          (9)   Trimix 10/60 1.11ppO2, 106ft ead, 113ft end
Asc to 240ft        (11)   Trimix 10/60 -40ft/min ascent.
Level 240ft       (12)   Trimix 10/60 0.83ppO2, 71ft ead, 76ft end
Asc to 220ft        (12)   Trimix 18/15 -40ft/min ascent.
Stop at 220ft    0:11 (13)   Trimix 18/15 1.38ppO2, 182ft ead, 182ft end
Stop at 200ft    1:00 (14)   Trimix 18/15 1.27ppO2, 165ft ead, 165ft end
Stop at 180ft    1:00 (15)   Trimix 18/15 1.16ppO2, 148ft ead, 148ft end
Stop at 160ft    1:00 (16)   Trimix 18/15 1.05ppO2, 131ft ead, 131ft end
Stop at 150ft    1:00 (17)   Trimix 18/15 1.00ppO2, 122ft ead, 123ft end
Stop at 140ft    1:00 (18)   Trimix 18/15 0.94ppO2, 114ft ead, 114ft end
Stop at 130ft    1:00 (19)   Trimix 18/15 0.89ppO2, 105ft ead, 106ft end
Stop at 120ft    1:00 (20)   Trimix 18/15 0.83ppO2, 97ft ead, 97ft end
Stop at 110ft    1:00 (21)   Trimix 18/15 0.78ppO2, 88ft ead, 89ft end
Stop at 100ft    1:00 (22)   Trimix 18/15 0.72ppO2, 80ft ead, 80ft end
Stop at 90ft    1:00 (23)   Trimix 18/15 0.67ppO2, 71ft ead, 72ft end
Stop at 80ft    2:00 (25)   Trimix 18/15 0.62ppO2, 63ft ead, 63ft end
Stop at 70ft    4:00 (29)   Nitrox 50 1.56ppO2, 32ft ead
Stop at 60ft    1:00 (30)   Nitrox 50 1.41ppO2, 26ft ead
Stop at 50ft    2:00 (32)   Nitrox 50 1.26ppO2, 20ft ead
Stop at 40ft    4:00 (36)   Nitrox 50 1.10ppO2, 13ft ead
Stop at 30ft    5:00 (41)   Nitrox 50 0.95ppO2, 7ft ead
Stop at 20ft    3:00 (44)   Oxygen 1.60ppO2, 0ft ead
Stop at 15ft 15:00 (59)   Oxygen 1.45ppO2, 0ft ead
Surface         (59)   Oxygen -20ft/min ascent.

— lost gas–> These tables are brought down as a back up for a lost gas situation, the diver would have to be alone to follow these tables, you learn more about this in the deep air courses.

OK 50 100 18/15

333     (9)       (9)       (9)       (9)
240     (12)       (12)       (12)       (12)
220 0 (13)   0 (13)   0 (13)   0 (13)
200 1 (14)   1 (14)   1 (14)   2 (15)
180 1 (15)   1 (15)   1 (15)   3 (18)
160 1 (16)   1 (16)   1 (16)   1 (19)
150 1 (17)   1 (17)   1 (17)   2 (21)
140 1 (18)   1 (18)   1 (18)   1 (22)
130 1 (19)   1 (19)   1 (19)   2 (24)
120 1 (20)   1 (20)   1 (20)   3 (27)
110 1 (21)   1 (21)   1 (21)   3 (30)
100 1 (22)   1 (22)   1 (22)   3 (33)
90 1 (23)   1 (23)   1 (23)   4 (37)
80 2 (25)   2 (25)   2 (25)   5 (42)
70 4 (29)   3 (28)   4 (29)   5 (47)
60 1 (30)   3 (31)   1 (30)   1 (48)
50 2 (32)   5 (36)   2 (32)   4 (52)
40 4 (36)   7 (43)   4 (36)   6 (58)
30 5 (41)   10 (53)   5 (41)   8 (66)
20 3 (44)   4 (57)   4 (45)   5 (71)
15 15 (59)   16 (73)   21 (66)   24 (95)

These are tables we need to take in case the dive went too deep or too long.

333, 9 333, 12 336, 9 336, 12

(9)       (12)       (9)       (12)
(12)       (15)       (12)       (15)
240     0 (16)       0 (16)
220 0 (13)   1 (17)   0 (13)   1 (17)
200 1 (14)   1 (18)   1 (14)   1 (18)
180 1 (15)   1 (19)   1 (15)   1 (19)
160 1 (16)   1 (20)   1 (16)   1 (20)
150 1 (17)   1 (21)   1 (17)   1 (21)
140 1 (18)   1 (22)   1 (18)   1 (22)
130 1 (19)   1 (23)   1 (19)   1 (23)
120 1 (20)   1 (24)   1 (20)   1 (24)
110 1 (21)   1 (25)   1 (21)   1 (25)
100 1 (22)   2 (27)   1 (22)   2 (27)
90 1 (23)   2 (29)   1 (23)   2 (29)
80 2 (25)   3 (32)   2 (25)   3 (32)
70 4 (29)   4 (36)   4 (29)   4 (36)
60 1 (30)   1 (37)   1 (30)   1 (37)
50 2 (32)   4 (41)   2 (32)   4 (41)
40 4 (36)   5 (46)   4 (36)   5 (46)
30 5 (41)   8 (54)   5 (41)   8 (54)
20 3 (44)   4 (58)   3 (44)   4 (58)
15 15 (59)   21 (79)   15 (59)   21 (79)

Wondering what its lik planning and diving to 100mt/333ft TDI Advanced trimix with Roatan Tec Center and Coconut Tree Divers in Roatan, Honduras.Respecting deep diving comes with experience and training, I tell my students “anyone can deep dive, that’s the easy part, however it’s the smart divers that come home alive”. Diving deep on a single tank with no planning or redundancies is just down right dangerous, get the training and enjoy your deep dive career.

Monty Graham

We would love to have you come dive with us!

For more info on Coconut Tree Divers, schedules, courses, and pricing head to our homepage HERE!

To make a reservation head to our online reservation page HERE!

Scuba Diving

Reef Safe Sunscreen or Bust!

What makes a sunscreen reef safe?

Unfortunately, the term’s “reef safe” or “reef friendly” are not regulated… meaning you may not always be able to trust a product advertising this label.

SO.. What can I do to help protect our coral reefs?

Use less sunscreen

Apply sunscreen 10-15 minutes before entering the water

Choose the correct reef safe sunscreen

Spread the word

What is not so awesome is that Roatan has too much macroalgae.

Diving to drink…

Inspiration

Underwater Wine Storage

So what is the science behind the oceanic benefits?

It did get slightly less romantic when we brought it up and the wine tasted like ass.

Why were we failing?

Rum?

Bonus Story

Technical Advanced Trimix Diving

Wondering what its like planning and diving to 100mt/333ft

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