Protecting The Reef

[Bruciebabe]

Bonair Marine Park does the briefing, check dive, annual fee, park pass and operators association things:
http://www.geographia.com/bonaire/bondiv01.htm
http://www.curo.org/
Manado, in Indonesia, also has a pretty good system:
http://www.divenorthsulawesi.com/entrancefee.html
And Spain has a few protected areas:
http://www.iucn.org/places/medoffice/documentos/mpa_spain.pdf

 

[mcclete22]

Although I think it is great that we are talking about what we as divers can do, I think that there is one main problem with this thread. We are only addressing what divers can do, and I think it is vital that we ask... what about non divers. The thing is that more than just divers need to be aware of what they are doing and what can be lost. I have been to Hawaii where at popular sites they tell you stay off the reef, and yet you will always, I say again ALWAYS see some person go out and stand up on the reef. Or how about the people who destroy reef to take a chunk home with them? I think it is awesome that we as divers are trying to figuere out what we can do to protect our reefs, but we as divers alone will never fix it, it needs to go further than us. I am not saying we can't or shouldn't do anything... but we need to do what we can, as well as try to show others what they can and need to do. I think the best way to do this is just by expanding knowledge through what we do. Man if more people could see pictures of things I have seen from divers, people would be more involved. Maybe the answer lies in the internet, a divers run site that has pictures, and stories that anyone can see and use, and then make it well known so that people can get educated. Educate divers, but we shouldn't limit it to divers, more people need to be made aware of what is happening and what we are loosing.

 

[Kim]

Bonair Marine Park does the briefing, check dive, annual fee, park pass and operators association things:
http://www.geographia.com/bonaire/bondiv01.htm
http://www.curo.org/
Manado, in Indonesia, also has a pretty good system:
http://www.divenorthsulawesi.com/entrancefee.html
And Spain has a few protected areas:
http://www.iucn.org/places/medoffice/documentos/mpa_spain.pdf

The Similans in Thailand seemed like a fair example as well (maybe more places there too). The fee is collected by the dive ops and paid to the park ranger on one of the islands. The DMs stress pretty good that everyone has to stay off the reefs. Last year I saw one diver grab a Manta. He got a real talking to afterwards.

 

[Diver Dennis]

These are all good constructive posts. I support the idea of having folks do a check out dive but there does need to be some type of agreement between dive ops written or unwritten to facilitate this. As TSand M pointed out, this could be difficult if a dive op needs the cash just to survive.
I agree the starting point has to be with new divers, making sure they can control their bodies underwater. This doesn't help with divers that dive maybe 5 times a year but we have to start somewhere. In another thread someone suggested having an artificial reef area, complete with fake coral and plastic fish tethered to the bottom, for divers that would clearly damage the reef due to poor skills. A little far fetched but maybe something along those lines like a beginner area where there is still some sea life but not so much reef to damage.
Just a thought.

 

[mcclete22]

I don't think that is far fetched at all. It doesn't need to be anything crazy, maybe an enclosed environment like a pool or something. And here is the thing, I haven't been alot of places, but I know on the big island on the Kona side alot of the resorts are close together, maybe the resorts can get involved and all put in on a "practice dive" site and all use it. In fact I would llike to do a dive in that kind of thing, probably make you more comfortable on the dive.
As a side note, certain associations such as PADI could help promote these practice sites, that way you are getting wider exposure.
As an afterthought... wouldn't this be beneficial anyways? I mean if you had a basic enclosed salt water dive thing you could practice reef protection, and fine tune your equipment for the dive. Get in the tank with all the things you will be diving with and fine tune your equipment so that when you get to the dive site you just go. Just a thought.

 

[archman]

Never fear, all of this stuff has been thought up before, many, many times. There is even a field for it, called Marine Resource Management. You can get college degrees in this. They have email news lists that come out monthly and seasonally, discussing this very material ad nauseum.

If you too would like to be "up" on modern marine park management and strategies, I recommend sunscribing to MPA (Marine Protected Area) News. It's pretty good. This is where I get my most up-to-date information.
http://depts.washington.edu/mpanews/

I am pleased that so many of you have an interest in this. It's a very complicated and frustrating field.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Great link archman. Thanks.

 

[Babydamulag]

Awesome link! Thanks for that piece of gold. I needed a reference site like that to help us with a mooring buoy project.

 

[Brad Robertson]

Marine Education and Dive Training, in my view should go hand in hand.All levels of training should include local marine education.This doesn't have to be school like mundane teaching but can be delivered in such a way that the divers attention is kept...with some good old fashioned humor attached to interesting and important facts.
One of the biggest problems I have seen in the recreational dive industry is the time constraints instructors are put under to deliver courses.More flexibility is needed to allow instructors to give more to their students.Also the employment of marine biologists within recreational diveoperators or naturalists that know their stuff is another great way to intergrate dive theory and marine life understanding.
If this were to become the norm within this huge industry then all these problems our oceans are facing would have a much better chance of being solved.
It doesn't take much to make dive training truly complete.Another important factor is not to force feed people with education, if they are interested they will listen and if they are not at the beginning then the instructors passion will soon become contagious and they will be interested .I can't post our website here yet but if you are interested search Ondine escape mallorca to see an operator that places marine life understanding on par with safety, comfort and enjoyment.We are not the only ones in this world tuis is for sure.but I am sure this world could do with some more.
Yes it's my business,an old instructor building a business with the view of making a
positive difference in regards to our oceans.
We all need to do a little to change alot.

 

[Brad Robertson]

Non divers are also the key to change, children are the key to change,but let the divers be the ones who teach these young non diving minds how important our oceans really are...