divinh
Contributor
I recently completed my first liveaboard, in Komodo. There were essentially three groups on the trip, a large group of eleven, a group of four and me. The large group of eleven could dive "fine", but were just a terror to dive with and terrible to the environment.
- Whenever a guide would point something out, they would swoop in to photograph and video said subject. Most were using GoPro's, so felt they had to get extremely close, especially for macro creatures. They did not have a macro lens.
- After photographing/videoing, they would hover at the subject to check what they shot without letting someone else have a momentary turn.
- Sometimes after they were done, they would fin right over the subject, either going through the coral or kicking up tons of sand, instead of gently backing away.
- Turtles would be grazing on coral and not mind us approaching very close for photos, but it wasn't enough for them. There was chasing of the turtles to get an action selfie.
- One pair, took out a reef hook and used it to tap on a turtle's shell as the swam away.
- Plenty of touching of critters.
- There were dangling octos and reef hooks, with reef hooks sometimes dragging chunks of coral.
- Time for safety stops generally ignored. They would continue swimming around, then ask us to wait for their safety stop to clear on their dive computers.
- One time, I signaled I was low on air and when we surfaced, one of the other divers wondered why and looked at my SPG. I had 30 bar, after waiting on them, past my safety stop clearing. He indicated that he had 20 bar and unconcerned. I think his idea of diving is to use up all the air in the tank!
I didn't speak their language, so there was no way to politely say anything. I did tell the guides as I observed things, but they kind of shrugged it off. In my comments at the end of the trip, I spoke directly to the lead guide and said that guides should be the ones to enforce some rules.
- Whenever a guide would point something out, they would swoop in to photograph and video said subject. Most were using GoPro's, so felt they had to get extremely close, especially for macro creatures. They did not have a macro lens.
- After photographing/videoing, they would hover at the subject to check what they shot without letting someone else have a momentary turn.
- Sometimes after they were done, they would fin right over the subject, either going through the coral or kicking up tons of sand, instead of gently backing away.
- Turtles would be grazing on coral and not mind us approaching very close for photos, but it wasn't enough for them. There was chasing of the turtles to get an action selfie.
- One pair, took out a reef hook and used it to tap on a turtle's shell as the swam away.
- Plenty of touching of critters.
- There were dangling octos and reef hooks, with reef hooks sometimes dragging chunks of coral.
- Time for safety stops generally ignored. They would continue swimming around, then ask us to wait for their safety stop to clear on their dive computers.
- One time, I signaled I was low on air and when we surfaced, one of the other divers wondered why and looked at my SPG. I had 30 bar, after waiting on them, past my safety stop clearing. He indicated that he had 20 bar and unconcerned. I think his idea of diving is to use up all the air in the tank!
I didn't speak their language, so there was no way to politely say anything. I did tell the guides as I observed things, but they kind of shrugged it off. In my comments at the end of the trip, I spoke directly to the lead guide and said that guides should be the ones to enforce some rules.