Scary reef abuse

[Jim Lapenta]

If you really want to save the reefs start contacting some of the agencies and insist on better buoyancy control standards for OW students. Dropping people in open water after a few hours in the pool, where no real buoyancy control has been taught (fin pivoting is NOT buoyancy control past pool session one) is one of the reasons you see so many standing, kneeling, bouncing off of and into reefs, wrecks, and each other.

 

[Goindrinkn]

ITISME: Were you out with a commercial operator? Did they give any time in their briefing about the "rules" regarding the reef?

In your opinion was it people ignoring the rules? Or was it a lack of awareness or skill to be able not to walk on the reef?

It may help to identify where the deficiency lies, is it the industry as what it feels are basic skills that would be taught to vacation divers as Jim points out? (and I am in no way knocking vacation divers we love your money!), is it the Operator? or is it just the occasional idiot diver?

I'm not in favor of outing anyone, but If there was no mention of what is appropriate or not appropriate during the dive briefing, I'd be interested to know the operator so I can give my business to someone else. All of the boats I've been out with down there have always stressed the importance of staying off the bottom especially when we are at standard OW sites where we may be out with less experienced divers.

 

[ItIsMe]

To those of you that provided contact information - Thank You!

I will pursue action...

 

[cloudswinger]

I wonder if it would make any difference if you were to pass out cards underwater, when you see the abuse, saying something like "Just a friendly reminder, You're damaging the reef when you do ..., please work on ___(your bouyancy skills, clipping your gauges, etc)". I'm sure half the people don't know what they're doing wrong.

 

[DennisS]

I wonder if it would make any difference if you were to pass out cards underwater, when you see the abuse, saying something like "Just a friendly reminder, You're damaging the reef when you do ..., please work on ___(your bouyancy skills, clipping your gauges, etc)". I'm sure half the people don't know what they're doing wrong.

Half the people would read them and immediately throw them away

 

[Tom Winters]

Well we opened up a touchy subject here. People smashing into reefs. No one goes through scuba instruction intending on doing this - "Hey, how can I maximize my damage potential to delicate staghorn coral?" just does not come up on any agency's agenda.
One huge problem, and I have seen this everywhere in the world I have dived, is that the DM's/instructors are not doing their jobs. Time after time after I have seen divers being overweighted on boats. It's easier on the DM's not to monitor their charges underwater.
The ABSOLUTE worst example I ever saw, and this serves as an indicator, was SNUBA at Waimanalo Beach Park on Oahu. Just offshore, there was staghorn coral running in a wide belt from 8' to maybe 20'. Beautiful, delicate formations that were immune from beachside incursions, i.e., swimmers and snorkelers.
Well, a season of SNUBA fixed that. The DM's would ALWAYS overweight people - the customers didn't like being on the surface. The reef was literally leveled to rubble in one season. This just keeps happening anywhere in the world where large dive operations dump divers on a reef system.
You have the cattle boats in the Keys - lots of divers - all rental gear - overweighting - BOOM!. Guess what gives?
Now a lot of it is price-driven. You see it allover this board. People want cheap. This is why Wal-Mart is the world's largest corporation. Someone running a 6-pack or a 10-pack CANNOT compete with the large cattle operators. The big boys can discount the hell out of their seats for board members and get kudos whenever anyone wants a Keys' op recommendation.
So Mr. or Mrs. ItIsMe - all the rules and regulations about reef damage have been in effect for decades in the Keys. Good luck butting your against the wall until you burnout. If you do prevail, then after this victory, please run for a seat as a Floriduh senator.

 

[boulderjohn]

... while dive guides allowed or joined in;

I have only used three different operators in that area, but none has put a guide in the water on any dive I have done there, except for one on the Spiegel Grove.

On the other hand, I have acted as a dive guide there for trips my shop has set up, acting on behalf of our shop.

If you did see dive guides acting irresponsibly, contact the operator and voice your displeasure. If it was one of theirs, they should deal with it. If it was a customer's group, there is not much they can do.

When I was leading a group in Belize and our assigned DM corralled a turtle for us to see clearly, I let him know politely after the dive that none of us wanted to see any harassment of marine life for the rest of the trip, and he complied.

 

[Nemrod]

That would make me want to take up spear fishing. N

 

[elmer fudd]

I'm all for some kind of limit of snorkelers/divers at any given time on a reef in the Keys. We were in Looe Key in May, there were 20 boats (private and diver operators) full of snorkelers/divers dropped onto the reef in a 50 yard area. It was insane. I'll never dive there again for that reason.

I can't imagine snorkelers account for more than a tiny fraction of the reef damage. The nature of snorkeling is that you're only underwater for two or three minutes at a time and I doubt the tourist crowd is underwater for more than a few seconds. What's more, when you are snorkeling, you're positively buoyant and don't have anything dangling off you.

I think this is almost entirely a novice scuba diver problem.

 

[ItIsMe]

Gorilla tactics optional...will begin educated and calculated...however, not afraid to exploit the natural human response of being confrontatial adverse.