Taking Coral and my confrontation with those who did

This is the situation:

I am diving at a site that many of us go to because of its sheer beauty. While diving there I see some divers flailing about on the reef, breaking off coral and basically trampling it. I can't tell if they just have really poor buoyancy control or are doing it intentionally but as I am unsuiting I see them exiting the water with a couple of big chunks. I decide to confront them about their behavior, telling them that they are ruining the coral for everyone but their response is to mind my own business and that nobody owns the ocean so they will do what they want. To be fair, this isn't a marine park or protected area in that way but it is a popular destination none the less.

Am I wrong for confronting them?

No you are not wrong. But what can you do? Don't put yourself at risk (if you're alone) because these idiots may also be the type to get violent. If there are other divers around, perhaps you can get their names or photos and publicize their activity. Public pressure may slow them down.

Why stop there? Take pictues of them, their equipment, their vehicle and license plate, run the plate, post their names and home addresses, contact the shop that vipped their tanks to get them to stop giving them fills, find them on facebook and repost, and start a petition to ban the dive site to all but advanced divers with verified boyancy control or those accompanied by instructors.

Or, instead of "confronting", you could approach them and offer to help them with their boyance skills and otherwise educate them on how fragile the ecosystem is.

Just a thought.

R/S.

db

I certainly wouldn't blame you Dale. Unfortunately however, there are people who don't respect nature and the environment. It's bad enough when they're not aware of the damage they do (use of plastic bags and bottles for example), but when they just don't care, it should tick-off those that do.

Maybe inform them that unlike taking a single fish, breaking off coral can destroy thousands of life forms and decades or even centuries of growth. And then hope that they got scratched in the process and will develop some serious infections.

DaleC:

…Am I wrong for confronting them?

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Wrong, no. Ineffective… probably. “Confrontation” generally does not work unless you have some form of “persuasion” to back it up.

Let’s say beating the crap out of them is more likely to put you in jail or a hospital than change their behavior. You can’t use laws in this case either. So, how do you persuade them to voluntarily comply? Short of a long and questionable effort to befriend and mentor them, there isn’t much you can do — besides recruit a large and intimidating gang. Unfortunately, that may motivate testosterone-fuelled jerks to do even more damage when you aren’t looking.

Hi there

I think it depends on what you want to achieve. (Adult) people usually don't break things on purpose or are destructive by pure mischief. They often lack of better knowledge or have not thought about the consequences of their actions. When you "confront" someone, so the first reaction mostly will be a defensive one (e.g. mind your own business, who are you anyways etc.)

If you want to change behavior, then maybe it might be more of an idea to simply talk to people, meaning to ask and understand why someone does something and to explain why this might not be quite as great. This approach is exhausting and not always crowned with success (especially if it's not possible to find the right words or a good way to approach those guys), but IMHO the only way in the long run. Otherwise human nature tends towards brushing off the incident and it's a lot easier to be annoyed by the self-announced sheriffs than to rethink one's own actions.

But if you just want to get the pressure of your rightous indignation off of your soul, then confronting is a very good way of getting steam out the system;-) ... and please don't ask me why I know that so very well ;-)

If those corals are not protected and harvesting is legal, then you should probably leave it be. If that harvesting is not legal, then document and report to the appropriate authorities.

From your description, it does not sound like a professional effort on their part.

Jim Lapenta:

Maybe inform them that unlike taking a single fish, breaking off coral can destroy thousands of life forms and decades or even centuries of growth.

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And yet a similar thread about a NW Puget area Octopus (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/438024-how-would-you-handle.html) had already garnered thousands of hits and replies within hours on :sblogo:

I was JUST going to ask if there was a giant pacific octo hanging onto that coral. I guess this was a slightly different take on the same subject to see if the hunting aspect is a deciding factor when forming an opinion?