I was on a dive once where the swimmers before us had hassled all the pufferfish into puffing up. I'd have been incredibly righteous about it, except the swimmers were dolphins . . .
I have certainly seen animals hassled by divers. I've seen them badly hassled by dive guides. I saw a group of divers manhandle a small octopus that a guide had pulled out of its hole and passed from diver to diver, until I wanted to whack them all upside the head with my can light . . . but that's the same can light I use to illuminate animals that don't have eyelids (although I do put my fingers over the light to filter it, when I can).
We don't belong there. I think we should try to minimize our impact underwater, but even if we make no effort whatsoever to do so, we will never have the impact that development, runoff, fishing and dynamiting have. And if taking those "hassled" photographs subsequently makes even a few people more aware of sea life and conservation, it might even turn out to be worth it.
I have certainly seen animals hassled by divers. I've seen them badly hassled by dive guides. I saw a group of divers manhandle a small octopus that a guide had pulled out of its hole and passed from diver to diver, until I wanted to whack them all upside the head with my can light . . . but that's the same can light I use to illuminate animals that don't have eyelids (although I do put my fingers over the light to filter it, when I can).
We don't belong there. I think we should try to minimize our impact underwater, but even if we make no effort whatsoever to do so, we will never have the impact that development, runoff, fishing and dynamiting have. And if taking those "hassled" photographs subsequently makes even a few people more aware of sea life and conservation, it might even turn out to be worth it.