Environmental-Policy

Dive Jervis Bay operates in the Jervis Bay Marine Park and acknowledges a greater responsibility to maintaining sustainable environmental practices due to this fact. 

The Dive Crew must at all times demonstrate commitment towards implementing practices which will promote environmental sustainability. The following policy governs the management of the environmental aspects of our company, with specific focus on education, best practice and ensuring respect for the Jervis Bay Marine Park.
 
Policy Statement
Dive Jervis Bay will consistently strive to promote environmental awareness in the Jervis Bay Marine Park, encourage participation in local environmental activities and follow best practices in waste reduction, conservation of energy, spill mitigation, water preservation and protection of the marine wildlife.

Implementing Principles

• Comply with any laws governing the environment
• Actively look for ways to implement our Policy
• Work towards the conservation of energy, water and resources in all our operations
• Strive to better understand both the direct and indirect impact that our practices may have on the environment.
• Promote environmental awareness on every trip with every client
• Each month have at least one environmental focused Facebook post or email to our clients.
• Dispose of waste thoughtfully, and develop an attitude of "reducing, recycling and reusing."
• Lessen our environmental impact by purchasing environmentally-friendly products and services where possible.
• Regularly review our business practices, SWMS and determine whether each practice is suitable in an environmental context.

Practical Applications

No Touching Things
Remember when you dive with us, we beleive that marine Animals and plants are not made to be touched by us land lubbers, and some animals are harmed and can die from our touch. Improve your buoyancy and save life, try not to hit the sea floor on decent, watch your finning and how much you are disturbing the sea floor, and especially watch out for the little critters, they are amazing too.

Dont feed the animals
What we are talking about here is we do not allow feeding activities such as burley or feeding fish to entice them in for photos or viewing as it changes behaviours. Even if its their natural food, the activity is harmful and damaging. As tempting as it may be to feed a sea urchin to a grouper, there is a lot of harm done, Grouper dont easily eat them and often end up with spines in there mouths that can harm or kill them, and the sea urchin has rights to, did you know that some species of urchins can be 100's of years old, they are beautiful at night and put on amazing displays of colour and phosperesence. Be reasonable and resist the urge.

No Stressing the Marine Life
Harassing marine animals, chasing them, trying to catch them or interfering with their homes or activities causes undue stress on them. It is unnecessary and wrong. How would you like an alien to come down and mess your house, knock over everything, ride you around like a motorbike and conduct unecessary anal probes. If we see you doing it you wont dive with us again.

Anchoring
We will only anchor our boats when there is a safety , training or other concern that requires it. We prefer to conduct live drops and pickups, if you need help with this let us know and we will walk you through the proceedures. Sometimes however it is not practical or safe to do a live drop especially when we are training or have inexperienced divers on board, in these cases we will use a mooring if available or we will drop an anchor. If we do drop an anchor you should be aware that we generally do in the same location that we have previously used. We have previously inspected the bottom and are aware of whats down there. The Dive Master will also check the anchor line during the dive and move it away from anything that needs to be protected. We avoid anchouring in areas that have coral, or specific habitates with lots of life such as kelp beds, we try to drop an anchour on bare rocks or shelves with no life. We try not to drop on sand as the boats and chains (it takes three times the chain length to anchor on sand) tend to drift into reefs and other areas unpredictably that can damage marine life. 

No Collecting Things on our Dives
Everything that originated in the ocean needs to be left there. It is all part of the marine environment. Feel free to take rubbish, plastic or any dumped human items but shells, rocks, lobsters or crays, molluscs and coral should be left alone. Hermit Crab shells are swapped from crab to crab and by removing them you are taking a potential home off the market. Soft Corals look great in the ocean, but should not be taken home. Lobsters, crays and molluscs used to be abundant in Jervis Bay, Spider Cave got its name from the numbers of lobsters that used to cover the ground. However years of over fishing have devestated the population to the point that they are now non exsistent and will probably never return. So please leave them alone.

No Fishing
As part of our commitment to the Marine Environment we do not sell or support any fishing activity at Dive Jervis Bay. We dont sell fish hooks, we dont provide fishing licenses and we dont have any rods. We will happily however tell you where you can and cannot fish and provide Marine Park maps for free that show you the location of the marine sanctuaries so that you know what areas and animals are protected.

No Spear Fishing

We have made a conscious decision not to support or sell spear fishing gear at Dive Jervis Bay, we have no gun rubbers, spears or sharp pointy things that can hurt fish, and while we agree that experienced spear fishermen can choose their catch and only take the fish that they will eat, we do not support any activity that takes fish from their natural habitat. We see the damage that occurs to the marine environment and the trauma that is caused by even the most sustainable fishing, as a result we can not support it.

No Sea Food
We believe in marine conservation, and any removal of sea life to be consumed is directly opposed to our beliefs. Seafood is not served on our boats or at our events, our position is to leave the seas alone. It can basically be summed up as:

Fish are Friends not Food

All credit to Bruce and Finding Nemo, he is one hell of a shark, dont forget that humans kill 70million of these misunderstood apex predetors every year...compared to maybe 2 humans, check out more information of Sharks here 

 https://www.divejervisbay.com/en/blog/viewpost/46/are-sharks-a-danger

 Thanks for taking the time to read our Policy Check out our info on sharks here above.