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It's official: Women are better scuba divers than men
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by DAVID HARRISON
UK (29 Oct 2007) -- For years women drivers have endured jokes about map reading and reversing from men who pride themselves on their superior spatial awareness.
Underwater, though, the boot – or flipper – is on the other foot. For women divers are much more aware of their surroundings than men, according to a two-year study of scuba divers.
"Women have better orientation," said Mandy Shackleton, a marine scientist at Hull University's marine sciences centre. "They have a greater awareness of what is going on around them."
advertisementWomen were found to be calmer, less aggressive and more safety conscious than their "gung-ho, sensation-seeking" male counterparts.
Men took risks and were prone to showing off. The men experienced "a chain reaction of hormones" that caused them to lose their "buoyancy control" more easily than women. The stress hormone cortisol is released first, followed by testosterone – the hormone linked with aggression – and finally, adrenaline. "The combination of these three results in erratic, dangerous diving," said Ms Shackleton.
On an ecological level, men's "spatially unaware" behaviour is damaging the world's coral reefs. There is growing concern about the future of the reefs, which are vital habitats for thousands of fish species.
Many male divers swim too close and break pieces off with their flippers or "fins". Their flippers also churn up the seabed sediment, which "suffocates" and kills the living coral.
"Men should try to relax and develop good breathing techniques to maintain control and minimise damage when they go scuba diving," said Ms Shackleton, a qualified dive master, who watched 500 divers of several nationalities, including Britons, off the coast of Kenya.
Nigel Forman, a professor of psychology at Middlesex University, said there was strong evidence that men had greater spatial navigational skills than women on land. However, he added: "Women tend to use local cues, signposts in their immediate vicinity, for navigation and it is possible that this is more effective underwater where even in the clearest waters visibility will not be as good as it is on land."
Jessica Alba tries to console several testosterone poisoned, DIR twin-tank knuckle dragging males who admitted they were depressed because they could not get squared away and keep up with women in the real world of recreational scuba diving.
Recreational scuba diving is increasingly popular, as the cost of exotic holidays has fallen. The industry is now worth around £2.5 billion globally. Just over 57,000 divers obtained certificates in the UK last year, 1,500 more than in 2005.
"Traditionally, it was seen as a masculine roughty-toughty sport," said Carol Giles, of Padi, a worldwide certificating body with several bases in Britain. "But more women are taking it up and they now make up about 40 per cent of all scuba divers. And in my experience, they do tend to have a more careful approach than men."
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