Solutions

What can you do to ensure that your sunscreen is safe for the marine environment and coral reefs?
• Use a sunscreen that does not have the ingredients shown to damage coral.
• Use a sunscreen that is 'water resistant' or 'very water resistant'. This helps it to stay on your body and out of the water.
• Use a sunscreen that has been tested biodegradable. Although this indicates that the product will break down over time, it does not, on its own, make a sunscreen 'reef safe'. Sunscreens biodegrade over a period of 60-90 days, whereas the Danovaro study showed complete coral bleaching in just a few days. Furthermore, this claim is largely under-regulated, so you may need to contact the company to verify.
• 'Reef Safe' claims on sunscreen labels are unregulated and therefore potentially meaningless. You really have to look at the ingredients, consider the science, and judge for yourself.

Note: There is actually a "Reef Safe" test that can be performed on sunscreens, and we looked into it, but they test on fish, not on coral. We chose to forego this test because it does not study the effects on coral.