Nightmare Marketing Problem Killing Florida Dive Industry--Any Suggestions?

[joystershell]

At first I thought that FL Scuba news had mistakinly put this in the wrong forum. but right now the oil spill is affecting the panhandle areas ( FL , Bama, Miss, and of course Louisiana) a lot worse than the rest of Florida, so I think this is the right forum.


Steve's comment didn't mention the keys, even though he was referring to a thread about the keys where the "crying wolf" about the oil was being posted. (even if he didn't state which thread it was).

I have no issue with the thread being moved,.... however, I think the current "problem area" is the one geographically covered by the Deep Dixie Diver forum.

I concur.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I have no issue with the thread being moved,.... however, I think the current "problem area" is the one geographically covered by the Deep Dixie Diver forum.

OK... then the OP is obviously talking about PCB and east, since everything west is most CERTAINLY getting hit with oil, especially offshore.

Oil is hitting St Andrews pass at this point. Offshore, slick and sheen has been reported as far east as Jefferson County(click a map open, thats pretty damned far east).


Geographically, the northern Gulf is getting affected big time by the oil, no sensationalism required, its fact.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Actually I think Steve's post is basically about one person and a thread they started here about oil in the keys about a month ago with "half assed information" and on real facts. I think his comment included a lot of sarcasm, but you'd have to know what he was talking about to get it.

I don't think he was bashing anything of the panhandle operators.....

Yeah what Mike said.....I apologize for my wording. It was definitely not aimed at all dive professionals. One specifically was doing what they could to chase people away. My bad.....

 

[NAUIwowee]

I have a condo booked in PCB for the third week in August. It is a very nice condo that my wife and I have stayed at several times over the past few years, and we have a good rapport with the owners. I go mainly for the diving and my wife goes for the beaches. Right now, we are on the fence as to whether to cancel our reservation or hold out longer to see what happens. I do not want to cancel; but at the same time, I don't want to invest a substantial amount of money into a vacation that we will not enjoy. If we didn't go to PC, I don't know where we would go instead. I'm planning on holding out till July 1st and make my decision then. If I don't cancel, I have to send full payment for the condo by July 14th. The owners have said that if the beaches get closed between then and the time of our trip, they will refund our money. But then I'll be scrambling to make last minute arrangements to go elsewhere since mine and my wife's vacation days are set with our employers.

I know this really has nothing to do with the OP's question of what Florida should do about marketing; but I just thought I'd throw out there the conundrum that myself and I'm sure a lot of others are facing that I'm not sure what kind of marketing can answer.

 

[2degrees]

I think that is what a lot of people are doing. I can not blame them. Florida hunters do not come up here when the season is out. Same with the coast and fish closings. I just hope YOUR president can find some persons a$$ to kick. I wonder if he can figure out who put that darn rig out there.

 

[Nemrod]

We have rented a house on the canals in Destin for years for usually three weeks to a month every year. This year we had it for a month. We canceled and offered to let the owner keep the significant deposit. He declined the offer and graciously allowed us to have our money back. We are going to the Caymans instead.

I am sorry this oil disaster is upon this beautiful area but I am afraid this is not going to be undone anytime soon. Hate the messenger, hate the oil, it changes nothing. The worst is that not only is the oil now flowing unchecked--again. The relief wells are not a sure thing.

I have a feeling we will be renting homes in the Keys or vacationing elsewhere in the future for some years to come but fingers crossed it will not be so. My property in the area is negatively affected of course but, what the h----. Thousands of people impacted, biology covered in oil all over the coast of my home state and no good outcome in sight.

Once the oil is stopped, the Gulf will recover in time, this is so unprecedented in scope and volume as to be largely unpredictable in terms of final outcomes.

N

 

[Shasta_man]

It does seem ironic that we are waiting for them to drill a well, same as the current problem, to resolve the problem

 

[Mopar]

It does seem ironic that we are waiting for them to drill a well, same as the current problem, to resolve the problem

I never looked at it like that. I hope no hurricanes head for the gulf.

 

[chris_b]

It does seem ironic that we are waiting for them to drill a well, same as the current problem, to resolve the problem

Actually I believe they are drilling two relief wells. They are called "relief" wells because they relieve the pressure at the blown well location, theoretically making it easier to cap the blown well. To make a relatively lame scuba comparison, imagine one of your second stages is freeflowing. Turning off the tank valve is not an option--with current technology the only way to stop it is to put duct tape over the mouthpiece. If you were to hold down the purge button on your other second stage (relief well 1) and hold down your power inflator button (relief well 2) you might be able to reduce the pressure enough at that freeflowing 2nd stage (blown well) so that you can get the duct tape over the mouthpiece. This all depends on a very weak first stage that can't maintain intermediate pressure (overall pressure of gas/oil in the deposit is low enough that it can be bled off by relief wells). If this doesn't work we're (even more) screwed until the tank pressure drops enough that the first stage can't deliver. I.e., until the overall pressure drops the best we can do is try to clean up what's coming out as quickly as we can.

Incidentally, many other countries require that relief wells be drilled at the same time as the main well to guard against just such an eventuality. Because we in general (i.e. the U.S.) tend to value corporations more highly than other countries, we don't feel the need to burden oil drilling operations with the not insignificant cost of drilling redundant wells for relief use in the case of a blowout. We here in the gulf are reaping what has been sowed via national energy policy of the last several decades.

If I can make another lame dive-related analogy, we're diving solo in an overhead environment with a single second stage on a J valve, while the rest of the developed world is diving that same environment with modern equipment and a coordinated dive team. On both sides of the analogy there are risks involved and everyone makes their own choices about their preferences for risk exposure.

More to the title of the thread, this has moved well beyond a "marketing" problem, at least for our Gulf Coast. This is an environmental disaster that will not be mitigated by clever marketing. If we want to do some marketing to salvage the local/regional dive industry, perhaps we should "sell" cave diving? Been considering a cavern course myself, maybe now is the time...

 

[ReefHound]

The relief wells, at least in this case, are not going to be used like that. They are going to be used to pump heavy mud into the base of the main well until the column of mud overcomes the pressure and stops the flow. Then the well will be cemented in.

What other country requires simultaneous relief wells to be drilled? My petro friends say that would kill the industry.