Quote:
MikeJacobs once bubbled...
Thanks Marvel for a terrific if not sad end to a perfect birthday.
While the IMAX will make me much more careful about dragging equipment or what I touch, there's little more I can imagine doing. I've had first hand experience lobbying for governmental solutions - imagine a shore-dive license or permit requiring a test and continuing education... I fear the necessary fees and typical ineffectiveness of the government program would be a tremendous disappointment and a setback.
Comments? Consolations? Words of wisdom?
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Could you see Broward county proposing a shore dive license to protect the reef from divers, that would be laughable.
Their plan is to cover acres of reef next year in the beach renourishment plan. If you've been around the south end of the county where they plan to start, you've probably seen the barges placing large limestone boulders. These are reparations? mitigations? for covering the living reef with sand. The sedimentation will stress a lot of the remaining reef. Somehow I don't think we need to worry about dive licensing from broward county, they wouldn't have a leg to stand on. They do more damage on purpose than an army of rec divers could do accidentally.
If that's not enough there is the natural gas pipeline that will be coming across from the Bahamas next year and landing around J Loyd Park and lots of proposed telecommuncation cables coming across the reef. When they dredged Hilsborough Inlet the dredge company dragged cables and destroyed an area of really nice coral. Somehow the dredge ccompany wasn't financially responsible for the incident and the cost was passed on to the taxpayers, I'm not clear of the details but remember reading it in amazement. I don't think we need to worry about shore diver licensing.