You could also make it a weekend project for a dive club. The Fantasy Lake map is, I believe, the result of many DM candidates doing their mapping exercise there and someone consolidating the information into a nice map and posting it. You can't map the entire lake in one dive; most DM candidates just map one section.
Correct, but as pointed out previously, most 'dive sites' (the actual area that is explored during a single dive) such as Cathedral in Anilao, Philippines, or Koh Ha near Koh Lanta, Thailand are reasonably small (or comprise perhaps a point to point swim part way around a large rock, or small island.
The point here being that if there were an organized effort to collect and consolidate this information, you increase the level and detail, and develop a work list for some items that might be of greater interest.. (like the entry point into the Cathedral underwater cave/cavern, or the chimney shoot).
Places like Anilao in the Philippines boast more than 40 sites that can be visited, but all the knowledge is in the heads of the local DMs or boatmen... and across the strait at Puerto Galera, there are sites that even advanced divers can't just gear up and dive in on, because the currents are local knowledge, and unless you take the DM along, you could end up in trouble being an 'independent diver'.
---------- Post added September 2nd, 2014 at 09:38 AM ----------
I have done a map. It took a number of dives and those dives were devoted to doing the map.
Depending on the year I currently do 30-40 dives a year. If I am lucky enough to hit an offshore wreck or ledge with good viz I do not wish to waste it or part of it taking measurements and writing stuff down. I want to spend it looking for creatures, taking some so so photos and admiring the beauty of the seas. If somebody else wants to make up a good map that is great, I might even use it. To each what they enjoy. But wild life moves around and I usually have a good enough mental map of the places I dive after a couple of dives.
I hear ya, I get so involved with just 'looking' I finish dives without ever using my camera at times... but that's kind of my point... if a guy like you comes back with a location of a wreck, and passes that along to an LDS or your local club, maybe they organize a 'club dive' to go out to it and do a info collection dive for the purpose of making that site more accessible, and more enjoyable for people with less dive time than you have.
