Small choices add up.

Aloha Diving became Thailand's first PADI Eco Center in 2023. The recognition combines Green Fins environmental standards with active participation in PADI AWARE's Adopt the Blue programme — bringing together how we operate, how we dive and how we contribute to conservation.

PADI Eco Dive Center recognition is renewed annually, so maintaining it means continuing to meet those standards year after year.

Green Fins is an international initiative that helps dive and snorkel operators reduce their environmental impact through practical standards and training. As a Green Fins member, we follow its best practices both above and below the water.

They cover everything from buoyancy and finning techniques to wildlife interaction, photography, reef-safe sunscreen and safely collecting marine debris.

Green Fins also offers a free Diver e-Course if you'd like to learn more about reducing your impact underwater.

Good intentions are better when they come with instructions.

Through PADI AWARE's Adopt the Blue programme, we have adopted Koh Mai Thon as our conservation site. We regularly dive along around half of its coastline, collecting marine debris and contributing observations on biodiversity, fish populations and shark and ray sightings.

Our Dive Against Debris dives turn visits to a site we know well into something more — a chance to remove what doesn't belong there and keep track of what does.

Instead of running a diesel generator for electricity, MV Matchanu uses solar panels and lithium batteries. It means less fuel burned, fewer emissions and less noise in the background — both above and below the water.

Even filling tanks doesn't have to spoil the peace. Our onboard compressor was chosen for its low noise level, keeping things quiet even while the tanks are being filled.

Sometimes what you don't hear matters too.

Some of our cleaning products start with something we'd normally throw away. Pineapple peels and fruit waste are mixed with water and brown sugar and left to ferment for around three months, creating a natural, biodegradable enzyme cleaner.

We use it for cleaning around the boat and dive centre, and even the solid leftovers get another job — they can be used as fertiliser. Very little of the pineapple actually ends up as waste.

We reduce what we can, but getting a dive boat to the dive sites still takes fuel. At the end of the year, we add up the diesel used by MV Matchanu and calculate the resulting CO₂ emissions.

Since 2019, we have compensated those emissions through the BluePass programme of Phuket-based Oceans For All.

On board, we avoid single-use plastic wherever we can, use reusable stainless-steel cups and choose paper packaging instead of Styrofoam. The cleaning products we use on the boat are biodegradable too.

We take the same approach with our dive equipment. Faded colours and a few scratches aren't a reason to throw perfectly good gear away. We check, service and repair our equipment, and replace it when it really has reached the end of its life.

Looking new and working properly aren't the same thing.

“Reef-safe” doesn't necessarily mean reef-safe — Don't rely on the label alone. Covering up is the simplest option; when sunscreen is needed, look at what's actually in it and favour mineral-based protection.

Look beyond the animal encounter — Seeing a wild animal up close can be tempting, but it's worth asking how it got there. Where did the animal come from? Why is it being kept there? And what happens when it is no longer young, cute or useful for the experience?

Seafood is complicated — As divers, we sometimes recognise marine life in restaurant tanks that we rarely get to see underwater. It doesn't necessarily mean they're protected or endangered, but it does make us stop and wonder why they're on the menu. If you're not sure what you're choosing, it's worth asking what it is and where it came from.