Green Fins Dive Guide e-Course

Learn how to positively influence your guests and help protect coral reefs one dive at a time

Why take this course?

As a dive professional leading and guiding scuba divers, you have the ability to positively influence diver behaviour and help protect coral and other marine life on every dive. If you can manage your divers and prevent them from causing damage, then you are helping protect coral reefs one dive at a time.

The Green Fins Dive Guide e-Course is FREE to take and will build on your existing scuba diving knowledge by providing you with the skills and confidence to conduct more environmentally friendly diving trips. After each module, you will do a short test

Learn how to positively influence your guests and help protect coral reefs one dive at a time
Learn how to positively influence your guests and help protect coral reefs one dive at a time
Learn tips and tricks for protecting the environment above and below the water
Learn tips and tricks for protecting the environment above and below the water
Do your part for Sustainable Development Goal 14
Do your part for Sustainable Development Goal 14
Receive a personalised certificate (£19)
Receive a personalised certificate ($25)

What’s in the course?

Module 1

Basic background to this course, coral reefs and the Green Fins initiative.

Module 2

Tips and advice concerning best practice above water and on the boat.

Module 3

What you can do below water and how to manage yourself and your divers.

…this course has proved to me how some very basic behaviours can be effective on our divers and also marine life too … That’s why the Green Fins Code of Conduct matters so much. As these basic habits and behaviours spread around the world, it would be easier to conserve corals, marine life and our oceans.
Kaan Atalay
Green Fins Dive Guide e-Course Scholar (Turkey)

FAQs

The Green Fins Dive Guide e-Course is the only course that teaches dive professionals how to prevent diving-related damage to coral reefs by following the highest environmental standards, as set out by the Green Fins initiative.

Dive professionals (guides and instructors), Rescue level (or equivalent) and above.

The course is FREE to take.  You have the option to buy a personalised certificate ($25).

All funds will be used to support Green Fins’ work around the world to make sustainable diving the social norm.

Yes. Dive professionals around the world can take the course whether or not their dive operator is a Green Fins member.

The Green Fins Dive Guide e-Course can be done at your own pace and usually takes no more than half a day to complete.

You need to get 100% in each of the three module exams to pass. You can take the exams as many times as you need to.

Certifications of the Dive Guide e-Course are valid for two years after which point students will be required to retake the course.

The Green Fins Dive Guide e-Course is currently only available in English.

If you or your employer cannot afford the $25 for the certificate, you can check if you are eligible for the Andrea Leeman Green Fins Dive Guide Scholarship Fund (see below).

Apply to be a GREEN FINS DIVE GUIDE Scholar

Receive your Green Fins environmental certification with the Andrea Leeman Green Fins Dive Guide Scholarship Fund

The Green Fins Dive Guide e-Course trains dive guides to the best environmental standards, helping them to preserve coral reefs and related ecosystems by reducing the negative impacts of scuba diving above and below the water. While it’s free to take the course, the personalised certificate to prove your status as a Green Fins guide costs $25 USD. However, we realise some dive guides – particularly those from developing countries – are unable to afford this expense.

For this reason, The Reef-World Foundation has launched the Andrea Leeman Green Fins Dive Guide Scholarship Fund which will help dive guides in need receive their Green Fins certification. More and more divers are looking to choose guides who follow environmental best practice so displaying this certificate can help you attract eco-minded customers, increase your employability and may even result in more tips!            

If you’ve taken and passed the Green Fins Dive Guide e-Course but can’t afford the certification fee, you might be eligible for a Scholarship. You can apply at any time.

Before proceeding with your application, please ensure you meet all the requirements for the Scholarship. To be eligible for the scholarship, dive guides must:

  • have completed and passed all modules of the Green Fins Dive Guide e-Course (free to take);
  • be able to demonstrate they or their employer are not in a financial position to purchase the certificate;
  • and be a national of a country that receives official development assistance from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Please note:

  • Responses to incomplete applications will not be provided.
  • False information will disqualify you from the Scholarship opportunity, and other opportunities that may arise in future granted by Reef-World and its associated partners.

FAQs

Dive guides will receive a response within 20 working days of submitting a full and complete application. The response will let you know whether you have:

  • Been successful in your scholarship application (with further instructions on how to receive your certificate);
  • Have been placed on the waiting list (and will be contacted when sufficient funds have been raised to cover your scholarship);
  • Have not been successful in your application

You may apply again but we encourage you not to apply more than twice.

Reef-World is a small team and therefore are not able to respond to individual applicants as to why they have not been selected.

Banner Image Credit: Renata Romeo / Ocean Image Bank