Yesterday afternoon, I personally spoke with/followed up with the owner of the dive operation the man was diving with. She was VERY responsive and very helpful. She said "we'll find him." :yelclap:
As I write this, I JUST received a call from the owner who has made positive ID, :yelclap: but the guy is leaving today.
She relayed his version of what happened to me and gave him my phone numbers and asked him to contact me. She spoke to him at 7:30 this morning, but I have yet to receive a call from him. She is going to see if she can track him down before they leave.
Of course his version is much different. I was not there, but I have the same version of the story from my divemaster, and five customers...who all relayed the story to me on different occasions. I should add that one of my customers actually gave me the full story BEFORE my divemaster simply because I saw him before she was back from the trip.
He does not deny that the seahorse was on his finger, but he claims that he was showing it to his buddy and it "jumped" to his finger. Hmmm...that's interesting! :lol2:
She also doesn't recall him having a "buddy" in site.
He claims she slapped him on the wrist and pushed him. She confirmed that this is true. She grabbed or slapped his wrist and she did shove him when he dropped the seahorse to push him out of the way.
He does not deny shooting the bird to my DM. Likewise, as I previously mentioned, she shot it back and wrote "A"hole on her slate. Not a great thing for her to have done, but can't say anyone else wouldn't have done the same.
He claims that when he spun around his tank hit my DM in the face, but it was not intentional. This is totally different than the version I got from everyone. She claims, as do my divers, that he actually kicked her with his fins...and that it was clearly intentional. He drew his knee to his chest and kicked her. She does not recall a tank ever hitting her in the face...only his fin.
If the "assault" part of HIS version is true, there is still no excuse for him touching the seahorse...and I have a hard time believing it "jumped" to his finger.
I will wait to hear from him. Perhaps he will contact me when he gets home...maybe he will e-mail me, and maybe he'll join in to tell his version...we'll have to wait and see. maybe he will remain silent. Watch for trip reports with a photo of a brown seahorse on a finger.
I'm willing to listen to what he has to say...but the fact remains that he should never have touched the seahorse...and he should not have taken an aggressive and defensive attitude to a Marine park guide simply doing her job.
So he was found, but it's too late to revoke his diving priveleges this time. I certainly hope if nothing else that he learned from this and understands how serious we are about protecting the reef and its inhabitants.
Take only pictures, leave only bubbles, keep only memories
Peace
As I write this, I JUST received a call from the owner who has made positive ID, :yelclap: but the guy is leaving today.
She relayed his version of what happened to me and gave him my phone numbers and asked him to contact me. She spoke to him at 7:30 this morning, but I have yet to receive a call from him. She is going to see if she can track him down before they leave.
Of course his version is much different. I was not there, but I have the same version of the story from my divemaster, and five customers...who all relayed the story to me on different occasions. I should add that one of my customers actually gave me the full story BEFORE my divemaster simply because I saw him before she was back from the trip.
He does not deny that the seahorse was on his finger, but he claims that he was showing it to his buddy and it "jumped" to his finger. Hmmm...that's interesting! :lol2:
She also doesn't recall him having a "buddy" in site.
He claims she slapped him on the wrist and pushed him. She confirmed that this is true. She grabbed or slapped his wrist and she did shove him when he dropped the seahorse to push him out of the way.
He does not deny shooting the bird to my DM. Likewise, as I previously mentioned, she shot it back and wrote "A"hole on her slate. Not a great thing for her to have done, but can't say anyone else wouldn't have done the same.
He claims that when he spun around his tank hit my DM in the face, but it was not intentional. This is totally different than the version I got from everyone. She claims, as do my divers, that he actually kicked her with his fins...and that it was clearly intentional. He drew his knee to his chest and kicked her. She does not recall a tank ever hitting her in the face...only his fin.
If the "assault" part of HIS version is true, there is still no excuse for him touching the seahorse...and I have a hard time believing it "jumped" to his finger.
I will wait to hear from him. Perhaps he will contact me when he gets home...maybe he will e-mail me, and maybe he'll join in to tell his version...we'll have to wait and see. maybe he will remain silent. Watch for trip reports with a photo of a brown seahorse on a finger.
I'm willing to listen to what he has to say...but the fact remains that he should never have touched the seahorse...and he should not have taken an aggressive and defensive attitude to a Marine park guide simply doing her job.
So he was found, but it's too late to revoke his diving priveleges this time. I certainly hope if nothing else that he learned from this and understands how serious we are about protecting the reef and its inhabitants.
Take only pictures, leave only bubbles, keep only memories
Peace
