Snorkelling reef guides trained in marine biology, at Pigeon Island and Hikkaduwa

A first step

Write a 2-hour guided snorkel at Pigeon Island or Hikkaduwa that names what guests see: the corals, the fish, the signs of bleaching. Run it free for a group of guests from one nearby guesthouse and ask them afterwards what they would have paid. Then offer the guesthouse owner a commission on each paid place. Stated prices and one owner agreeing to sell it are your proof.

Who pays first

A guesthouse owner near the reef who wants something better to sell than a mask hire, and earns a commission on every guided place.

What leaves today

Visitors snorkel unguided and learn nothing, so the reef earns a mask rental while guided, educational snorkelling sells at a premium elsewhere.

The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.

The test

Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?

The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.

In the book

• Ch. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
  An ocean eight times the size of the land

More from cluster 13

• 251Sailing charters and a yacht marina at Galle or Trincomalee, with the crew trained here
• 252Diving schools at the wrecks of Trincomalee and the reefs of the east, certified to international standard
• 253Sport fishing charters with catch-and-release, sold to the Gulf and Europe
• 254Sea-cucumber and seaweed farming in the northern lagoons, which Japan and Korea buy
• 255Tuna graded, loined and vacuum-packed at the harbour for the sashimi market, not sold whole
• 256Crab and prawn from the lagoons as a branded chilled export, with the lagoon's name

All 20 ideas in this cluster