Introducing 2018’s most responsible travel trend: eco-diving. Moved by the effects of climate change, and inspired by programmes like the BBC’s Blue Planet and documentaries like Chasing Coral, a new wave of recreational divers is opting for a more hands-on underwater adventure where the point is to restore or protect or just learn about coral reefs. Up until now, trips like these in Malaysia, Thailand and the Raja Ampat Islands in Indonesia have meant the do-gooding comes with a compromise on digs. Not so in the Maldives: this year, luxe super-yacht liveaboard Carpe Diem offers dives with Coral Reef CPR, where divers team up with the marine conservation non-profit’s scientists to study and ultimately save the area’s reef. And if that sounds like an eco-cute pitch without any real practical benefit for the environment, think again, says Coral Reef CPR’s Dr Andy Bruckner: “The trips we run rely on individual manpower; the more divers we have, the greater the impact.” Example: “When we use volunteers to help eradicate an outbreak of harmful starfish, we can do that a lot quicker than with just a few scientists. Every diver makes a difference.”
