The other side's version

[mjh]

When you’re wrong you are really wrong.

"Whether he touched a seahorse or not is irrelevant to the point I'm making about doing her job the way she's supposed to."

There would have been no conflict if the guy had obeyed the rules. He must take the majority of the responsibility for what happened. Her responsibility is to protect the sea life and she did. Making him put down the seahorse is exactly what she was supposed to do, she was being a professional.

Then it gets into who kicked who first. If someone is belligerent enough to violate rules that have been stated over & over than tea room edict probably would have been ineffective. If you are more upset about how the violator was treated than how he treated the delicate and defenseless creature than you might want to find a different past time because being a diver means doing what we can to protect it’s denizens.

I am done with this subject. We look forward to the opportunity to dive with Christi and her crew, again.

 

[damselfish10]

You're right that when you're wrong, you're wrong. Especially if you think putting people in danger is right! The diver didn't create the conflict, the DM did! She should have tried tapping him first, then try other measures if that didn't work. But she didn't. I just hope I'm never in the water with the you or that DM, as it could look like a bar fight under there.

I also am done because responding to someone who doesn't seem to understand right from wrong in safety issues isn't worth my time or energy.

 

[SadiesMom]

The DM had the responsibility to protect the marine life, but also the responsibility to act in a professional way. Flipping recreational divers off and calling them a--holes underwater does nothing but make others upset. ....[cut] I call what she did an assault on the recreational diver. Whether he touched a seahorse or not is irrelevant to the point I'm making about doing her job the way she's supposed to.

While I don't necessarily condone her actions, she and her 5 witnesses apparently report HIS flipping her off first (which he apparently concurred with) and her gesture was in response to his. She and her 5 witnesses ALSO reported what THEY interpreted as a DELIBERATE kick to her face by the diver...Personally, I'd call that an assault on the DM by the diver if it happened as they described it! And in light of the DM's being flipped off and then deliberately kicked in the face by a diver she corrected for touching marine life in a protected marine park (i.e. "doing her job") I'd say that writing "A--hole" on a slate is a pretty restrained response. (And I'm not saying that I think that it's professional behavior or that I agree with it...)

Frankly, what I see now is a story that is impossibly tangled in various people's perceptions of the events - the diver's, the DM's, the 5 divers' who were with the DM, the woman who posted as "Eye Witness"...all of them experienced the same circumstances and yet only a very few of them seem to tell the same story. Even the diver's story and the "eye witness'" story vary significantly.

Some things do agree and on those we can probably all agree:

---The diver touched a seahorse in a Federally protected Marine Park. He admits this. He shouldn't have done this.
---The DM wrote the word "*********" on her slate in anger. She admits this and has said she is ashamed of having done so. She shouldn't have done this.

Beyond that, I think the facts of what actually happened are now lost to the perceptions of those involved and the "truth" lies somewhere between everyone's stories - and none of us will probably ever know what the "truth" is. Perhaps in light of that, it's time to let it lie....

 

[ggunn]

A polite tap on the shoulder and a please put the seahorse down would have been lost on this guy.

"
How do you know? Do you know "this guy" personally, or are you projecting what his attitude would have been based on what you have read here?

I would have at least tried that approach first. Maybe the DM did; I don't know, I wasn't there. It doesn't matter, anyway, not now. It's really easy to get all in a huff about the actions of some hypothetical bad guy, but unless you know "this guy" and know for sure that the a-hole label fits him, you are tilting at a straw man. So many people have written "If I we there I would have..." Well, you (the collective "you") weren't; you know far less about what really happened than those who were there, and look at all the disagreement amongst those folks.

It's over and he's gone. Get over it and get some perspective. Spend your energy on the big picture; it is counterproductive to focus all one's energy on one small (and really, this is small, except for the fight at depth, which has little to do with the seahorse) incident.

Countdown to the locking of this thread: 5....4....3....2.......... ;^)

 

[freefall2]

While I hate to see anybody poking at the creatures underwater, (except with a speargun), the guy may have only been too close to the seahorse when he pointed at it.

Back in the early '90's in Vancouver, I raised brine shrimp and rotifers to sell to aquarium/pet stores as live food. One of the stores received a pregnant seahorse in a shipment and asked if I'd take him and try to save him and the babies with the tiny live food. The whole thing was heartbreaking because none of them survived and I begged the shop owner to tell his supplier to stop catching seahorses. My point is that whenever I put my hand in the tank to clean it or adjust anything the seahorse swam over and jumped onto one of my fingers for a ride.

 

[KW15]

I have just read all 3 message boards about this situation and it scares me. My family and I are new divers and were considering a trip to Cozumel. We were trained by a retired commercial diver who is a NAUI instructor, and felt confident in our training. However, after reading all Christi's messages along with opinions from others, I am very afraid. I am afraid to make a mistake (unintentional) and be physically repremanded under water and in the international forum. My bouancy control is still lacking, and I have been told it takes practice (many dives). I am afraid of people like Christi and her DM who seem to believe that it is OK to handle themselves unprofessionally, without self control, tempermental and are inconsiderate of the people who pay them. How do new divers protect themselves from people like this in the diving world? We did not learn about being physically acosted under water by dive professionals and what to do about it. If I were the diver, it would of frightened me so bad, that I might of lost focus and shot to the top! What is a new diver to do?

 

[cdiver2]

I have just read all 3 message boards about this situation and it scares me. My family and I are new divers and were considering a trip to Cozumel. We were trained by a retired commercial diver who is a NAUI instructor, and felt confident in our training. However, after reading all Christi's messages along with opinions from others, I am very afraid. I am afraid to make a mistake (unintentional) and be physically repremanded under water and in the international forum. My bouancy control is still lacking, and I have been told it takes practice (many dives). I am afraid of people like Christi and her DM who seem to believe that it is OK to handle themselves unprofessionally, without self control, tempermental and are inconsiderate of the people who pay them. How do new divers protect themselves from people like this in the diving world? We did not learn about being physically acosted under water by dive professionals and what to do about it. If I were the diver, it would of frightened me so bad, that I might of lost focus and shot to the top! What is a new diver to do?

Dont go to Coz and you will be ok

 

[ggunn]

I have just read all 3 message boards about this situation and it scares me. My family and I are new divers and were considering a trip to Cozumel. We were trained by a retired commercial diver who is a NAUI instructor, and felt confident in our training. However, after reading all Christi's messages along with opinions from others, I am very afraid. I am afraid to make a mistake (unintentional) and be physically repremanded under water and in the international forum. My bouancy control is still lacking, and I have been told it takes practice (many dives). I am afraid of people like Christi and her DM who seem to believe that it is OK to handle themselves unprofessionally, without self control, tempermental and are inconsiderate of the people who pay them. How do new divers protect themselves from people like this in the diving world? We did not learn about being physically acosted under water by dive professionals and what to do about it. If I were the diver, it would of frightened me so bad, that I might of lost focus and shot to the top! What is a new diver to do?

No to worry, the event depicted here is an extremely rare occurrence. In fact, it is the only one of its kind I have ever heard of in 12 years of diving Cozumel, and IMO it has been blown up *way* out of proportion, largely by folks that weren't within 750 miles of the incident when it happened.

Dive conscientiously and don't intentionally handle anything in the marine park, and you will be fine. If you accidentally bump something and the DM sees it, you'll likely get some help with not repeating your error. If you intentionally violate park rules, you can expect to be corrected, even to the point of being prevented from diving anymore if you are not responsive to the correction, but the incident that sparked this firestorm is, as I said, extremely rare. Common sense (usually) reigns.

Especially be careful around seahorses. They are pretty scarce around Cozumel, and everyone is especially protective of them.

 

[michaelp68]

I have just read all 3 message boards about this situation and it scares me. My family and I are new divers and were considering a trip to Cozumel. We were trained by a retired commercial diver who is a NAUI instructor, and felt confident in our training. However, after reading all Christi's messages along with opinions from others, I am very afraid. I am afraid to make a mistake (unintentional) and be physically repremanded under water and in the international forum. My bouancy control is still lacking, and I have been told it takes practice (many dives). I am afraid of people like Christi and her DM who seem to believe that it is OK to handle themselves unprofessionally, without self control, tempermental and are inconsiderate of the people who pay them. How do new divers protect themselves from people like this in the diving world? We did not learn about being physically acosted under water by dive professionals and what to do about it. If I were the diver, it would of frightened me so bad, that I might of lost focus and shot to the top! What is a new diver to do?

KW15, make the trip to Cozumel that you have been considering, and you and your family will love it.

Remember that you could surf the Cozumel Forum here on ScubaBoard and you will see hundreds of posts about diving in Cozumel. You'll notice that it will be awefully difficult to find many horror stories like this one which concerns you.

You'll also notice that if you read enough reviews from other dive destinations, there's always the occasional horror story. In fact, if you read enough reviews from vacation destinations in general, there's always the occasional horror story. So, what I'm saying is that this incident should not leave you with a bad taste in your mouth about diving in Cozumel or diving in general.

If your buoyancy skills are not well-developed at this point in your diving, just make sure that you work on that particular skill-set when you dive, before and/or during your trip, and your buoyancy will improve. Remember that if you touch, crash into or kick the reef or the marine life while diving, you may kill it. (You also may hurt yourself.) These are reasons why your buoyancy control is so important and why most experienced divers take that so seriously.

If you tell your dive operator ahead of time that you are not so great with your buoyancy control, they might work with you on that skill and help you. Your concern that you may not have good buoyancy skills is a good concern, and it's good for you to recognize it. BUT, it's no reason to avoid diving or avoid a trip to Cozumel.

Go to Coz, and enjoy.

Michael

 

[HammerNoMore]

This thread needs to start becoming a little nicer and less argumentative.