Many tour companies operating in the Bay already had in fact already been providing reef-safe sunscreen to their customers for several years. These tour operators inform their customers that the chemicals in sunscreens make the coral sterile beyond recovery. Ocean waters in the Bay don’t circulate fast enough to disperse the accumulations of sunscreen from large numbers of people enjoying its waters.
In 2018, Hawaii’s lawmakers passed a bill banning the sale of sunscreens with the chemicals oxybenzone and octinoxate. Studies have shown that those chemicals are toxic to reefs and marine life. The DLNR strongly recommends that people use only mineral-based sunscreens – with no chemicals of any kind. Tour operators are hoping that Kealakekua’s sunscreen ban will send a strong message about reef-safe sunscreens to residents and visitors around the state.