A couple years ago I was on a dive boat in St Thomas. We had stopped there for the day on a cruise ship, and we booked our dives with a company that ran a small six-pack boat (instead of the 40-person cattle boat that usually services the ships.)
As we arrived at our first site, I pulled a GPS from my bag to record the coordinates. The mate nearly flipped out and gave me a lecture on GPS etiquette: that divers should always ask the captain's permission before recording GPS coordinates because the crew's livelihood depends on their dive sites. He implied that the location of the dive sites was proprietary knowledge, and that if I were to pull out a GPS unit at some places in the Caribbean the crew would confiscate it and throw it overboard.
I was a bit surprised by this and thanked him for the information. I didn't engage him in further conversation because part of me thought that what he said made sense... and part of me thought the guy was crazy. Either way, asking for clarification wouldn't have been useful.
But yesterday I pulled out my GPS unit to pack for my dive trip this week, and I was reminded of this incident. So I figured I should get a broader perspective on the situation. A few questions for all of you:
1. If a dive site is not secret or proprietary, i.e. if it's shown on a Franko's map and is one that is commonly visited by tourists every day, does the captain really want every diver with a GPS unit asking for personal permission to use it?
2. If a dive op is planning to take divers to a secret location that only that dive op knows about, would they mention this in the dive briefing, or even before the boat left the dock?
3. Is there a lucrative market for GPS coordinate information? (If so, please connect me... I'll secretly record coordinates of every site and sell them to the highest bidder.)
3. Was this guy a bit nutty? Or am I completely clueless about GPS etiquette? Or maybe a little of both?
Thanks for your input. I've never had anyone pay attention to my GPS unit before, and I know plenty of others I've dived with have used them, but I'll defer to the broader experience of ScubaBoard members.
As we arrived at our first site, I pulled a GPS from my bag to record the coordinates. The mate nearly flipped out and gave me a lecture on GPS etiquette: that divers should always ask the captain's permission before recording GPS coordinates because the crew's livelihood depends on their dive sites. He implied that the location of the dive sites was proprietary knowledge, and that if I were to pull out a GPS unit at some places in the Caribbean the crew would confiscate it and throw it overboard.
I was a bit surprised by this and thanked him for the information. I didn't engage him in further conversation because part of me thought that what he said made sense... and part of me thought the guy was crazy. Either way, asking for clarification wouldn't have been useful.
But yesterday I pulled out my GPS unit to pack for my dive trip this week, and I was reminded of this incident. So I figured I should get a broader perspective on the situation. A few questions for all of you:
1. If a dive site is not secret or proprietary, i.e. if it's shown on a Franko's map and is one that is commonly visited by tourists every day, does the captain really want every diver with a GPS unit asking for personal permission to use it?
2. If a dive op is planning to take divers to a secret location that only that dive op knows about, would they mention this in the dive briefing, or even before the boat left the dock?
3. Is there a lucrative market for GPS coordinate information? (If so, please connect me... I'll secretly record coordinates of every site and sell them to the highest bidder.)
3. Was this guy a bit nutty? Or am I completely clueless about GPS etiquette? Or maybe a little of both?
Thanks for your input. I've never had anyone pay attention to my GPS unit before, and I know plenty of others I've dived with have used them, but I'll defer to the broader experience of ScubaBoard members.