Clean Sailors join forces with pioneering sunscreen Himaya, for cleaner seas.
We are very excited to share our new partnership with pioneering natural sunscreen, Himaya, for cleaner seas!
The golden rule when spending time in the sun is to cover-up and sunscreen-up. These tips are generally the best when it comes to protecting our skin from potentially harmful UVA and UVB rays and the secondary health impacts they may cause, such as skin cancer.
These tips are now well-known. Perhaps less known is the harmful effect that our sunscreen has on our marine environment, and on us. Sunscreen is traditionally made up of a variety of substances and chemical filters which are geared to reflect, scatter or absorb UV light and whilst sunscreen is helpful in protecting our skin against the sun, but it isn’t a natural substance nor native to our ocean environments.
According to research up to 14,000 tonnes of sunscreen ended up on coral reefs across the world every year, affecting marine life right down to their DNA, causing abnormal skeleton growth, birth defects, decreased fertility and decreased reproduction, change in biological sex characteristics (i.e. female characteristics in male fish) and where toxicity levels are high, even death.
True to form, Clean Sailors wants to play a role in identifying opportunities for sailors and our sailing industry to help improve the health of our waters, by providing ideas, answers and products that make sailing cleaner.
As the first step in this journey, Himaya and Clean Sailors will be working on a short educational series for sailors and the wider marine industry on sunscreen and the impact on our waters, including top ways to protect ourselves over the warmer months.
“It is great to see how the world has changed and started to pay attention to the issue we have created in our oceans. Himaya has been pioneering ocean-friendly sunscreen in the surf market for 20 years now and we are really happy to partner with Clean Sailors to further the cause and educate even more ocean users.
It is amazing to see how Clean Sailors is bring this new mindset into the sailing community and as we have the same goals it makes sense to join forces to further the cause” says Stuart Knowles, founder of Himaya.
Holly Manvell, Founder of Clean Sailors says “With major sunscreen brands recently recalled under suspicion of containing cancer-causing chemicals, for at least the second year running, it has never been more important to support and promote those pioneers and thinkers genuinely producing better products for our welfare and for that of our oceans, too.
Team Himaya truly scrutinises every decision, ingredient and material to ensure optimum performance in sport and an all-natural product. Their commitment to improvement and self-scrutiny keeps them at the fore of being and remaining the original ocean-safe sunscreen. Our crew and Youth Racing Team love to use it, too. Welcome, Himaya!”
About Himaya
Himaya has been pioneering mineral sunscreens for sports since 2002. Originating from Ocean and Mountain sports it is water repellent, sweat proof, reef safe, vegan and refillable, used by Pros, Instructors, Mountain Guides, World & Olympic and XGames Champions for 20 years.
About Clean Sailors
Clean Sailors is a not-for-profit, mobilising the global sailing community in conservation of our oceans. Launched in July 2020, Clean Sailors' mission is to set a new standard of sailing within our global sailing community: clean sailing, by raising awareness of ocean conservation opportunities within our sport, our passion, our pastime.
The crew's aim is to make an ocean ambassador of each and every sailor around the world, and Clean Sailor’s already counts three-time world champion and four-time Paralympian Hannah Stodel, as well as CJ Perez, the youngest ever sailor to join the SailGP league, as ambassadors to their cause.
In 2021, Clean Sailors launched Cleaner Marina with industry partners including boatfolk, MDL Marinas, savvy navvy and Ecoworks Marine, to encourage better, cleaner standards across marinas, ports and harbours, globally.
In January 2022, Clean Sailors announced the launch of the Clean Sailors Youth Racing Team with three international Champion sailors; CJ Perez (18) the youngest sailor ever to join the SailGP league and the first latina, Lukas Hesse (22), German Champion 2020 and Swiss sailor Jann Schüpbach (20). 2022 will see the exceptional young champions compete together in the Persico 69F, at the very highest standard of foiling and as ambassadors for cleaner, healthier seas and a cleaner sailing industry.