Recreational diving is an important activity in reef environments
worldwide, providing income and employment for coastal communities
and connecting visiting divers to these ecosystems promoting conserva-
tion and stewardship. However, if poorly managed, diving has the
potential to cause detrimental effects on benthic communities via
mechanical damage caused by physical contact of divers with the reef,
often in the form of unintentional fin kicks resulting from poor buoy-
ancy. Understanding diver–reef interaction patterns is important to elu-
cidate the potential impacts of diving tourism on the reef biota. The
DiverReef database provides the first public dataset on the underwater
behavior of recreational divers in shallow reef environments (<25 m
depth) globally and their interactions with the reef seascape and/or reef
benthic sessile organisms. The dataset comprises 20 years of data
(2004–2023) by observing the behavior of 2311 recreational divers in
nine countries at 19 diving destinations and 176 diving sites; 93% of the
observations were in marine protected areas. The data were collected
through on-site observations of divers’ behavior during tourism activi-
ties and their physical interactions with the reef structure and/or ben-
thic sessile reef organisms. Observers discreetly followed divers and
recorded their behavior and interactions with the reef over set periods.
Interactions were described as“contact” or “damage,” the latter refer-
ring to when physical damage to a benthic organism or the reef struc-
ture was observed. Besides behavior, observers also recorded data on the
type of diving activity (scuba or snorkeling), profiles of the divers (gen-
der and experience), use of cameras by the divers, visibility, type of reef
formation, and marine protection status of the dive site. The authors of
this research expect that the data provided will be useful in advancing
knowledge of how divers interact with reefs and in developing strategies
to mitigate the potential detrimental effects of the diving industry on
reef biota. Part of the data has already been used in reports and scientific
articles. This dataset can be freely used for noncommercial purposes; we
request that users of these data cite this data paper in all publications
resulting from the use of this dataset.