Etiquette is mostly about not harming the habitat. A few rules also keep people out of fire coral, lionfish and territorial damselfish. Not a medical page.
A cut from coral is a clinical cleanliness problem. A broken colony is a century problem.
Hazards
- Fire coral and hydroids — Look, do not brush.
- Lionfish and stonefish — In some seas; shuffling on sand, not on reef, if wading.
- Territorial damselfish — A comical bite that still means you are in the nest.
- Night-light blindness — Yours and the animal’s.
- Anchor scars as a group hazard — A boat that cannot moor should not “just drop it.”
- Human crowd panic — A kicked mask in a shallow grove leads to standing. The stand is the injury to the reef.
Rules
- No touch, no take, no chase — The whole code in six words.
- Use moorings — Or drift. Do not invent an anchorage on a bommie.
- Follow ranger signals — A whistle is not optional audio.
- Report damage and feeding tours — Parks cannot fine what they never hear about.
- Night: one beam, low — See the night-diving chapter.
Red flags
- A guide handing out bread — Refuse and say why.
- A selfie stick in the thicket — Stop the group.
- Someone pocketing a shell — The park’s problem now.
- Bleached or recently broken branches under knees — Exit the photo.
First response
- Coral abrasion — Clean water, then clinical care if it is a reef cut — they infect. Not a protocol.
- Stings — Local park card over internet myth.
- Not medical advice — Infections from marine cuts need clinicians.
The red flags are social. The first-aid is ordinary wound care plus a clinic, not a folk vinegar debate.