I keep standing on muck while muck diving. Does this kill the animals?

[janecui11]

So I was in Lembeh, Indonesia for muck diving (I went with Two Fish divers). There was pretty strong current, and the critters and very small in the mud. You have to get on your knees or else you can't get close enough to the critters to see them.

I felt bad that I was kicking the mud and the sand all the time because I couldn't control my buoyancy. But even the dive instructor was on his knees and kicking the sand all the time.

In know in normal dives, I would try very hard to not touch anything and keep a far distance from anything alive. But in muck diving, you have to make a compromise between actually seeing the things you want to see verses conservation.

Does anyone know what happens if I step on the muck where the animals live? What about if my fins kick the water and sand goes everywhere? What are the implications of this damage on the creature's habitat?

Have you been muck diving and what are your experiences with that?

 

[JahJahwarrior]

I muck dive often, but I can control my bouyancy. If I saw a dm who could not, and constantly stirred up the bottom, I would change operators.

There is a big difference between standing and gently resting your knees on the surface.

Of course, walking a trail in the woods you step on ants, but you do try to avoid walking off the path and into ant hills.

Leave only bubbles!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Nemrod]

The less time you spend on the bottom be it coral, grass, sand, mud, muck, rock or whatever the case may be, the better for all involved. The "all" being you, your buddies and more importantly the plants and animals you are disturbing.

As to your instructor, some of the worse divers I have ever encountered were instructors from a well known and popular abc agency. You know inherently by your question that disturbing the bottom is wrong. That said, there is no real harm if you find a sandy place and gently set down for whatever reason you feel the need. The less contact with the biota including and especially living reef the better.

N

 

[MaxBottomtime]

 

[DaleC]

I don't know if it kills them but they sure get depressed.

 

[TMHeimer]

I haven't really muck dived, but probably something similar. Of course, good buoyancy is always best for a number of reasons. On any dive, I have rarely found the need to put my knees, feet or anything else on the bottom, be it one of sand or silt, mud, etc. I have at times practised the fin pivot back when it was in vogue, and reg retrieval on my knees. Some say contact with sand is very bad because lots of creatures live below the sand/muck, etc. Being a shell collector, I am not one to worry too much about that.

 

[TSandM]

When we dove at Lembeh, there were a lot of significant critters who were found partially or almost completely submerged. I actually felt bad about standing up and walking out of the water from our shore dives, because even close to shore, the bottom had its inhabitants.

It is not necessary -- simply not necessary, ever -- to kneel or sit on the bottom to look at critters. If the current is mild or there is none, a quiet horizontal hover will do. If there is current, a reef stick inserted in the silt will give you plenty of stability to avoid being pushed away from what you want to observe. And although a reef stick stuck in the silt has the possibility of damaging something, it's less than your weight on the bottom, or your fins kicking blindly at the habitats.

 

[Darnold9999]

To repeat what was said below, if an instructor/guide was to be on his knees kicking up the sand in Lembeh that would be my last dive with that instructor/guide and I would not be returning to that operator. There is just no good reason to do that other than inexperience.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Lembeh, of all places, isn't a place to be kneeling on the bottom. To answer your question directly ... yes, you can kill some of the critters that way. Other critters might end up killing you ... kneel on a stonefish or blue-ringed octopus and you might never do it again ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Allison Finch]

I get pretty angry when people kneel on the bottom and kick silt up all over the place. As a photographer, I hate having the silt in all of my photos. That is why I never dive muck without a muck stick. Carefully pushing it into the muck will work wonders stabilizing your position in a current and you can push and pull on it to adjust your position, keeping the finning at a minimum.