reef safe sunscreen!!!

[reeftrinh]

i'm not sure if you guys know this but typical chemical based sunscreen has been linked to coral bleaching. the chemicals are weakening the immune systems of a colony and virus's are killing off the corals. most chemical based sunscreen do not bio-degrade and over time it will kill corals and reefs.

so get the message out especially if you plan on doing some snorkeling or diving over this summer. here's some additional information.

http://www.mangrovebelize.com/sunscreen.html

i'm going to belize in august so i had to stock up on some sunscreen. i ended up getting a badger brand sunscreen which claims that it is reef safe.

[noahm]

Interesting. I am curious what kind of concentrations/vol seawater this was tested in the lab, because I have a hard time believing that sunscreen is anything but the tip of a flea's hair when it comes to the crap dumped into the oceans. Everything adds up, but I am curious how they determined the link with wild colonies.

[kissman]

with the number of people on the beach around the world thats a lot of sun screen. I doubt to that its the only link, but i would think it does add up to alot all day every day sunscreen on bodies and in the ocean

[Lynnmw1208]

very interesting!! If it's bad for corals, imagine how bad it is for us!!

[snorvich]

I don't believe that any brand is "reef safe"; however I don't believe that any significant amount reaches corals during snorkeling or diving.

[kissman]

I think everybody should own a saltwater tank and if they have any question if something can go into the ocean try it out and you aquarium and see. If you own a tank you realize how fragile a system it really is

[aleonn]

Originally Posted by snorvich

I don't believe that any brand is "reef safe"; however I don't believe that any significant amount reaches corals during snorkeling or diving.

Should be labeled "Reef safe w/ caution" hehehe

[snorvich]

Originally Posted by aleonn

Should be labeled "Reef safe w/ caution" hehehe

Exactly.

[snorvich]

Originally Posted by kissman

I think everybody should own a saltwater tank and if they have any question if something can go into the ocean try it out and you aquarium and see. If you own a tank you realize how fragile a system it really is

I do and I am. However, the size makes a whole lot of difference. I am not advocating pollution, but I am advocating a bit of stand back and evaluate. As I diver I never wore sunscreen.

[cody6766]

There was a study done a while back that went into pretty good detail about the sunscreen/coral bleaching issue. I posted it in this section of RC several months ago, actually. Search the interwebs or RC for it and it should pop up.

Here are a few extracts from the pdf file I have saved:

Sunscreens Cause Coral Bleaching by Promoting Viral Infections
Roberto Danovaro,1 Lucia Bongiorni,1 Cinzia Corinaldesi,1 Donato Giovannelli,1 Elisabetta Damiani,2
Paola Astolfi,3 Lucedio Greci,3 and Antonio Pusceddu1
1Department of Marine Sciences, 2Institute of Biochemistry, and 3Department of Chemical Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of
Science, Polytechnic University of the Marche, Ancona, Italy

BACKGROUND: Coral bleaching (i.e., the release of coral symbiotic zooxanthellae) has negative impacts
on biodiversity and functioning of reef ecosystems and their production of goods and services. This
increasing world-wide phenomenon is associated with temperature anomalies, high irradiance, pollution,
and bacterial diseases. Recently, it has been demonstrated that personal care products, including
sunscreens, have an impact on aquatic organisms similar to that of other contaminants.
OBJECTIVES: Our goal was to evaluate the potential impact of sunscreen ingredients on hard corals
and their symbiotic algae.
METHODS: In situ and laboratory experiments were conducted in several tropical regions (the
Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, and the Red Sea) by supplementing coral branches with
aliquots of sunscreens and common ultraviolet filters contained in sunscreen formula.
Zooxanthellae were checked for viral infection by epifluorescence and transmission electron
microscopy analyses.
RESULTS: Sunscreens cause the rapid and complete bleaching of hard corals, even at extremely low
concentrations. The effect of sunscreens is due to organic ultraviolet filters, which are able to
induce the lytic viral cycle in symbiotic zooxanthellae with latent infections.
CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that sunscreens, by promoting viral infection, potentially play an
important role in coral bleaching in areas prone to high levels of recreational use by humans.

To evaluate the potential impact of sunscreen
ingredients on hard corals and their
symbiotic algae, we conducted several independent
in situ studies with the addition of different
concentrations of sunscreens to different
species of Acropora (one of the most common
hard-coral genus), Stylophora pistillata, and
Millepora complanata. These studies were performed
from 2003 to 2007 in different areas of
the world, including the Celebes Sea (Pacific
Ocean), the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic Ocean), and the Andaman Sea and the Red Sea
(Indian Ocean).

I believe the article was a free one, so search google scholar for it.

[noahm]

Robert van Woesik, a coral expert at the Florida Institute of Technology:

excerpt from NatGeo article

He questions whether conditions in the study accurately reflect those found in nature.

For example, the coral samples were exposed to sunscreen while in plastic bags to avoid contaminating the reefs. But van Woesik worries this prevented dilution of the chemicals through natural water circulation.

"Under normal situations on a coral reef, corals would not be subjected to these high concentrations because of rapid dilution," van Woesik said.

Even the study's author Roberto Donavaro refuses to make this connection.

"But before we ban sunscreens, we must first determine if local ambient concentrations of sunscreens are positively correlated with coral bleaching events."

The concentration was the equivalent of two hands soaked in 2L of water for 20 minutes. You can imagine a coral being in a bag of that water not being happy.

It is just so difficult to make any kind of conclusion (hence the word "potential" in their own conclusion), when experiments are designed this way. An unfortunate waste of time IMO as far as useful data.

[snorvich]

Right. Which in effect was my point.