That wasn't a vacation, that was work.
The point is, however, it is fairly easy to not be dependent on an LDS for air fills.
The beginning of this line of discussion may have gotten lost. The originating hypothesis was that a certain critical mass of divers is needed to sustain a dive industry as we know it. That is more than the LDS--it is everything associated with diving as a commercial enterprise, including dive-oriented resorts, liveaboards, etc. I used to dive in Cozumel with an older DM , a Cozumel native who remembered the island before Cousteau visited and said, "Hey! There's great diving here!" It was a sparsely populated island marked by utter, unrelenting poverty. The dive business brought pretty much everything that is there now.
I have no doubt that if the whole system were to collapse, the hard core divers would still be able to dive, but I am trying to imagine a scenario in which I describe our vacation plans to my wife:
Well, dear, we are all set for a week on Bonaire. Of course, now that so few people go there, the inter-island airline has gone out of business, so we will have to fly to Aruba, where I have chartered a boat to take us to the Bonaire. I have made arrangements with a cargo plane to carry our tanks and compressor. Of course, once I had made those arrangements, I found out it would not cost me much more to bring some industrial sized O2 tanks so that we can blend nitrox while we are there.
Since there is no real reason to go to Bonaire without diving, the hotels are pretty much shut down, but we can bring a tent and stay right on the shore--no wasted time traveling after breakfast! I also found out that the truck rental operators are all shut down as well, but the wild donkeys are still there--we can catch a couple and use them to haul equipment. There are no dive boats operating, so we won't be able to get to Kleine Bonaire. We will also have to practice our repelling to get to one of the best sites.
Since there is no real reason to go to Bonaire without diving, the hotels are pretty much shut down, but we can bring a tent and stay right on the shore--no wasted time traveling after breakfast! I also found out that the truck rental operators are all shut down as well, but the wild donkeys are still there--we can catch a couple and use them to haul equipment. There are no dive boats operating, so we won't be able to get to Kleine Bonaire. We will also have to practice our repelling to get to one of the best sites.
OK, maybe an exaggeration, but I think a lot of people like going to dive areas and having expected services all ready to go and don't want to have to bring their own tanks and compressors.