Did you know that 97% of the Galápagos Islands are protected by the Galápagos National Park (3,000 square miles of land) and the Galápagos Marine Reserve (50,000 square miles of ocean)? As a leader in Galápagos dive trips and Galápagos land tours, Academy Bay Diving has long understood our duty to offer environmentally friendly services. We love playing our part in protecting this pristine natural wonderland. For years, we have participated in ocean clean-ups, provided water in cups from refillable water bottles, and used Tupperware for our lunches so we don’t produce much waste.
But it’s time to step it up a notch! We’re proud to announce that we are making our operations even greener. Scroll down to find out more about our developments as well as the practices we already have in place. If you have any questions for the Academy Bay team, please just get in touch for the answers you need.
Making Our Galápagos Dives and Tours Greener
So, how are we improving our green credentials? Well, we are extremely happy to announce that the Pacific Seahorse (our dive boat) has just been installed with an Electro Scan toilet treatment plant. We are the first daily dive boat with a toilet treatment plant and we hope that the rest will follow shortly!
All our divers can now rest easy with the knowledge that when they sit on the throne with Academy Bay, they will not be contaminating the environment!
What’s more, we will soon replace our snacks of potato chips, Doritos, and store-bought biscuits with homemade cookies and cake from a local baker delivered in reusable containers. Hopefully, the only rubbish your dive trip will produce will be the bag from the toilet (you can’t flush the paper!).
If you want to learn more about the environment we’re helping to protect, be sure to read our Brief Guide to the Galápagos Marine Reserve and Brief Guide to the Galápagos National Park.
How Do We Help to Keep the Galápagos Green?
The upgrade to our dive boat and changes to our food options are only the latest developments in our pursuit of becoming more sustainable for the benefit of the Galápagos Islands. Below are some examples of practices we already have in place.
- The cleaning products we use on the boat for the floors and toilet, in the office for washing the equipment and bathroom, and for washing the towels, are 90% biodegradable. (There is one product we have not been able to replace on the boat yet).
- In the office, we have also reduced waste by changing the whiteboard we use outside to display the next day’s dive sites to a beautiful wooden sign. No more whiteboard markers to dispose of!
- We have a water station in the office where all people, (not just our customers) are welcome to come and fill their re-fillable water bottles or grab a glass of water. Unfortunately, there is still no drinkable tap water in the Galápagos, but if everyone brings their reusable water bottles, we will save a lot of plastic!
So when you board our boats or step into our office, please have a look at how we are doing! And, of course, we are only happy to receive any suggestions from our environmentally conscious customers!
As we near the end of this guide, let us point you toward more reading on a similar topic. If you found this subject interesting, we think you’ll enjoy our blog Can Wildlife Tourism Ever be Ethical?
Explore More with Our Galápagos Dives and Tours
We hope this blog has shown you how seriously we treat the need to be green in the Galápagos — and, just as importantly, the need to continually find new ways to improve. The less impact our Galápagos dive trips and Galápagos land tours have on the environment, the more future generations can enjoy them like we do.
And remember, you can play your part too! When travelling the world, please be a responsible traveller. Just the same as you research your destination, research the tour company you will explore with. Just one tour operator who we think is doing a great job elsewhere in the world is Tibet Trips. Be sure to check them out!
Be a smart traveller! Be responsible! And if you have any questions for the Academy Bay team, please don’t hesitate to contact us.