In Bonaire, the rule is summed up in one line on the STINAPA website, the organization that manages the marine park: no gloves or knee pads, except for medical exemption requested by email. Many divers discover this while packing their bags.
However, gloves remain genuinely useful in cold water, on a wreck, or along an anchorage. It all depends on the water, the site, and the local rule.
Our old page piled up thicknesses without sources and didn’t say a word about prohibitions. We have revisited the topic in order: cold, protection, then marine parks that refuse gloves.
What are diving gloves really for?
Gloves primarily serve to keep hands warm, because fingers quickly lose dexterity in cool water. They also protect against cuts on a rope end, a boat ladder, a wreck’s metal plate, or rocks covered with barnacles. Their role ends there.
Cold hands have a practical cost. Numb fingers handle an inflator, a safety sausage, or a carabiner clip less well. In temperate water, a thin pair often suffices to maintain this control until the end of the dive. In cold water, gloves are part of the basic gear, like a hood. On a wreck, they prevent opening your palm on rusty metal or a forgotten fishing line.
They are not meant for gripping the reef.
But the old list of uses mixed everything up, from spearfishing to photography, as if a single pair covered every practice, whereas thickness, cut, and site rules change from one outing to another. We prefer to start from the water you will find.
What glove thickness according to water temperature?
No standard associates a temperature with a glove thickness. The guidelines circulating come from manufacturers and club habits: 0.5 to 2 mm in warm water, around 3 mm in temperate water, 5 mm or more when water drops below 18 °C. Take them as indicative.
| Water (indicative reference) | Common gloves | What you lose |
|---|---|---|
| Warm, above 25 °C | Textile or neoprene 0.5 to 2 mm | Almost no dexterity loss, little warmth gained |
| Temperate, about 18 to 24 °C | Neoprene 2 to 3 mm | A bit of touch sensitivity |
| Cold, below 18 °C | Neoprene 5 mm and up, or three-finger model | Much dexterity |
Our old version gave 5 to 6.5 mm for water from 10 to 18 °C, then 2 to 5 mm between 16 and 24 °C. The two ranges overlapped. Neither cited a source, and we kept the order of magnitude without false precision. The feeling varies according to duration and the suit worn. The same reasoning applies to your suit thickness according to temperature, which matters more than glove thickness.
The thicker the glove, the less you feel what you hold.
Yet thickness is not everything, because a glove too large lets cold water circulate with every wrist movement and loses much of its benefit, whatever the number printed on it. Try before buying.
Dry gloves: how does it work with a dry suit?
Dry gloves attach to the cuffs of a dry suit, usually by a system of rigid rings that replace or complement the wrist seal. The hand stays dry, with an insulating under-glove underneath. This is the solution for divers in very cold water, at the cost of a more delicate assembly.
The principle is simple. The air in the suit can circulate up to the hands, which keeps the under-glove inflated and warm throughout the dive. In return, a tear on a finger lets water into the glove, and sometimes into the sleeve. Some setups keep the wrist seal in place to limit this risk. Systems differ from one manufacturer to another, and we have tested none for this article.
Check the assembly with the workshop that services your dry suit.
Thus, before a cold water trip, slip a spare pair of damp gloves into your bag, since a pierced dry glove far from a repair shop can cost you a whole day of diving. The spare weighs little.
Where are diving gloves prohibited?
The best-documented case remains Bonaire. On its diving rules page, accessed on October 3, 2026, STINAPA requests not to wear gloves or knee pads in the national marine park, with a possible medical exception upon written request. Cozumel and part of the Red Sea often appear on these lists.
For Cozumel, local operators and several online guides state that the national reef park prohibits gloves, except for registered professionals. No official text was found online that states this explicitly. These same guides also mention knives, a topic covered in our article on dive knives and their regulations. The details of exceptions remain impossible to determine from here. Request it in writing.
In the Egyptian Red Sea, the situation is even more unclear.
Glove bans there mostly come from instructions by centers and boats, requested as early as 1998 by the HEPCA association in Hurghada, and no dated official text extending them to the entire coast was found. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism announced in April 2026 an update to the diving framework. Nothing public about gloves to date. Yet Bonaire’s rule comes with a mandatory orientation dive and an annual nature fee, detailed in our diving guide for Lac Bay, Bonaire.
Why ban gloves? The link with no-contact
The managers’ idea boils down to a few words: a gloved hand neither feels stings nor burns, so it is more easily placed on coral. A study by Roche and colleagues, published in 2016 in Environmental Management, lists gloves among accessories suspected of increasing contacts, and notes that these bans remain unpopular.
The figures from this study, conducted on 100 divers observed in the Philippines, still give a rough idea. Fins caused 45.5% of observed contacts, hands 19.5%, and equipment 15.9%. The study does not measure the effect of gloves themselves. It mainly shows that centers most engaged in the Green Fins program had contact rates about twice as low as others. Gloves only appear in passing.
In short, removing gloves does not solve the issue of fins.
However, the argument holds for a simpler reason, since Bonaire’s instruction comes with another line in the same regulation, which asks not to touch, move, or grab marine life, even for a photo. We share this view, and detailed it in why you should never touch marine life. Stable buoyancy, adjusted with well-fitted weighting, reduces support from both hands and fins.
How to choose your gloves and keep them in good condition?
First choose according to the water you will find and the site’s rule, then according to size. A glove must close without compressing the fingers, and the wrist must pass under or over the suit’s sleeve without leaving a gap. Try them by gripping an inflator or a carabiner.
Maintenance remains basic. Rinse them with fresh water after each day, then let them dry in the shade, turned inside out if the model allows. Sun hardens neoprene. Check the seams at the fingertips, which often fail first. A glove that lets water in at the thumb no longer keeps much warm, even if it looks intact.
And if your trip goes through Bonaire, leave them at home.
The cost of a bad choice remains modest in money, but it is paid in comfort, with numb fingers mid-dive, or in time, if you have to buy a pair on site because yours did not suit the day’s water. Asking the center before departure avoids both.
FAQ
Are gloves banned everywhere in the Red Sea?
We found no official text banning them along the entire Egyptian coast. The rule often depends on the center or the boat. Ask before booking.
Can an exemption be obtained to wear gloves in Bonaire?
Yes, STINAPA indicates that a medical exception can be requested by email. Make the request before departure, with a certificate from your doctor.
What thickness of gloves for water at 20 °C?
No standard sets this figure. As a guideline, many divers take 2 to 3 mm at this temperature. Your feeling and the dive duration matter just as much.
Are gloves necessary for diving in tropical water?
For the cold, rarely. They are mainly used on a wreck or at an anchorage, where they are allowed. On a reef, the best protection is to touch nothing.
Do dry gloves fit on all dry suits?
No, you need a ring system compatible with your wrist seals. Check with the dealer or the workshop that services your dry suit.
Sources
- Diving, rules and regulations (STINAPA Bonaire, accessed October 3, 2026)
- Recreational Diving Impacts on Coral Reefs and the Adoption of Environmentally Responsible Practices within the SCUBA Diving Industry (Roche et al., Environmental Management, 2016)
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