Finally picked up a copy of The Last Dive by Bernie Chowdhury. A decent book, but I've got a question on it.
A lot of the divers in the book (including the author) seem to be obsessed with retrieving artifacts. I have never dove wrecks on the scale of the Doria, but have done lots of wreck diving in the Great Lakes. There, if you come up off the bottom with an artifact while on a charter boat, you would be pretty much kicked off the boat. It's considered somewhat of a sin to even think about taking anything off of the ships.
Even the author himself states in his book that divers should live by the rule to take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but bubbles...so how does he justify using that statement and then going down to the Doria and grabbing as much stuff as he can smash into a bag? And, for you divers that have dove the Doria or other wrecks such as this, why do you retrieve all the artifacts? Do you not subscribe to the idea of leaving the wreck pristine for others to view?
I'm just curious....the viewpoints in this book seem to heavily contradict with many of the things I have heard from the wreck divers I have dove with. While I admit it would be "neat" to have something on a wall, I find it much more beautiful to view it as it was, laying on the floor of the lake or the ocean.
A lot of the divers in the book (including the author) seem to be obsessed with retrieving artifacts. I have never dove wrecks on the scale of the Doria, but have done lots of wreck diving in the Great Lakes. There, if you come up off the bottom with an artifact while on a charter boat, you would be pretty much kicked off the boat. It's considered somewhat of a sin to even think about taking anything off of the ships.
Even the author himself states in his book that divers should live by the rule to take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but bubbles...so how does he justify using that statement and then going down to the Doria and grabbing as much stuff as he can smash into a bag? And, for you divers that have dove the Doria or other wrecks such as this, why do you retrieve all the artifacts? Do you not subscribe to the idea of leaving the wreck pristine for others to view?
I'm just curious....the viewpoints in this book seem to heavily contradict with many of the things I have heard from the wreck divers I have dove with. While I admit it would be "neat" to have something on a wall, I find it much more beautiful to view it as it was, laying on the floor of the lake or the ocean.