SUSTAINABILITY & ISLAND CONSERVATION
Cozumel is a worldwide top destination for scuba diving widely known for its endless visibility and stunning coral reefs. Hundreds of species of animal and coral depend on the health of the reef for their survival. It is our responsibility as divers and guests in the underwater world to take any and all measures we can to protect this environment.
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Our goal at Aldora Divers is to allow our customers to experience this stunning environment
without causing any harm to its fragile ecosystem.
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We want to remind our divers that coral and marine life are protected in Cozumel, they should not be touched, collected or damaged due to our presence there.
Cozumel's Marine Park
Cozumel's Marine Park runs south along the west cost of the island starting at the dive site Pariaso around Punta Sur, the southern tip of the island, and up north along the East side of the island. Approximately 1.8 million people visit Cozumel's Marine Park every year and the area is protected by Mexican federal law. According to figures from Mexico's National Commission for Protected Natural Areas (CONANP), its waters are currently home to 105 different types of coral and 262 species of fish.
When visiting for your dive vacation please remember to follow the marine park rules.
Rules of Cozumel's Marine Park
We ask all of our customers to be aware of their use of Sunscreen when in Cozumel. It is advised that sunscreen not be used when diving or snorkelling in the Marine Park as there are many reef damaging chemicals contained in sunscreen. Even the packaged 'REEF SAFE' sunscreen is usually not suitable and still contains the reef damaging chemicals.
We encourage our customers to cover up in the sun, use a hat and wear a rash vest to protect your skin, however, If sunscreen must be used please make sure it is a Zinc Based sunscreen and that it contains none of the harmful chemicals listed below.
Annual Reef Closure Rotation
Cozumel's Marine Park has implemented a rotation of reef closures throughout the year to allow the reef to rest from divers and increased boat traffic.
Please view the chart below detailing what reefs are closed throughout the year.
Reduce single-use plastic on our Boats
What can you do to help?
BE PREPARED
Arrive to our boats with your reusable water bottle. Have adequate sun protection, a hat and a resh vest in order to not use sunscreen.
We offer some distinct courses and dives to help with conservation practices on the island.
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Learn how to use a Hawaiian sling and to safely hunt the invasive species, making sure not to damage the reef and surrounding areas.
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A trash cleaning dive usually in a northern dive site. Here we use specific tools to cut, clean and collect fishing line which has become entangled in the reef, while making sure to not harm the coral and organisms that have been caught up in the line in the process.
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Eagle Ray Monitoring
In the winter months sightings of Eagle Rays are more common in the marine park. Learn how to identify males and females and how to correctly photograph the eagle rays to help with monitoring projects.
ALDORA
CONSERVATION
COURSES
What can you do to help?
Use your camera!
Due to the stony coral tissue loss disease that has ravaged Cozumel's reefs, hard coral species are in local danger of extinction. A gene bank of these endangered corals is being created to design future restoration projects to save these species of coral.
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We need your help to report healthy colonies of the corals listed below with photographs
and their GPS location to the email listed below.
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If GPS location cannot be listed, please use the dive site name and the depth at which you found the coral.
Aldora Divers in association with:
Volunteer and Civil Projects
On Cozumel, there are a number of Volunteer Civil Projects that divers can independently join to help with conservation efforts on the island.
Cozumel Ocean Research is a non for profit non-govermental organization that runs various scientific research projects, some of which are centered around emblematic species that inhabit or migrate to the island, others focus on pollution concerns and industry pressure to this same environment. Their projects are dedicated to the collection of valuable data through which we may supply proposals that support the conservation of specific species and habitats.
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Mar Sustentable is a non profit organisation who's aim is to generate and integrate interdisciplinary data on coastal exploitation and socioecological systems to integrate the ecological, social, archaeological, and physical dimensions of coastal environments. They aim to produce trajectories of human coastal exploitation on different temporal and spatial scales over critical conservation habitats (e.g., coral reefs, mangroves) and have worked closely with Aldora divers collecting shark research.
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CONANP Cozumel- Parque Nacional Arrecifes de Cozumel y APFF Isla Cozumel has been working at collecting samples of hard coral that is under threat on the Island and replanting them in various locations along the coast. Aldora assists CONANP in trips to the north east side of the Island to visit the colonies of Elkhorn Coral there where they have now been sucessfully tagged and listed.
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Corales Vivos Cozumel is a self-organized community group that emerged in 2019 in response to the accelerated death of reef-building corals and the degradation of this ecosystem. Members of the Cozumel community organized themselves and began working hand in hand with CONANP Cozumel to monitor the disease known as white syndrome or SCTLD. This included training its members to monitor corals, algae and fish. Since its beginnings, Corales Vivos Cozumel has also conducted surveillance to detect environmental violations and report them to the authorities.
Aldora divers works directly with Corales vivos in providing support to the marine park and north zone coral nurseries.
Aldora Divers, a prominent figure in the diving community, proudly announces its role as one of the founders and active members of the Community Surveillance and Monitoring Committee. This committee, comprised of five dedicated dive shops, is committed to the vigilant oversight and elimination of illegal fishing activities within the Arrecifes de Cozumel National Marine Park.
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The committee engages in regular surveillance patrols, both by sea and land.
These patrols are conducted to monitor and discourage any unauthorised fishing activities that could compromise the integrity of the marine park
