Most scuba divers believe they rarely touch fragile seabed ecosystems, yet underwater observers tracking hundreds of tourists found that more than 40 per cent of their physical contacts caused visible damage to living coral structures.

We found that most damaging contacts were accidental and often went entirely unnoticed.

Most scuba divers believe they rarely touch fragile seabed ecosystems, yet underwater observers tracking hundreds of tourists found that more than 40 per cent of their physical…