billinwilliamston
Contributor
Very political thread here. I should stay clear, but...
Private photo safari parks work quite well in other countries and there are 10's of thousands (millions?) of acres of national forest that are under private management. The parks work and the national forests are sustained because it is in the financial best interest of the parties involved to make sure that life not only survives but thrives. You will not find a privately held photo safari park or a privately managed section of national forest land that has been as physically beaten up as our reefs.
Our reefs are being loved to death and something needs to change before divers kill them off completely. It's quite obvious that, while nearly all divers and dive ops claim to be environmentalists, the dive industry as it is currently configured here is it's own worst enemy. The time honored Florida traditions of spear fishing and lobster netting with SCUBA are unheard of in many parts of the world. The current prevailing attitude seems to be "touch it, it won't hurt you" rather than "don't touch it, you might hurt it". A privately held reef park that made it's living from licensing divers wouldn't promote the madness of mini season within it's borders any more than the owners of a golf course would promote a tractor pull on their 18th green.
If we can't police ourselves, then why not give someone else a shot at it? "Better the devil you know" just means you keep sleeping with the devil.
Private photo safari parks work quite well in other countries and there are 10's of thousands (millions?) of acres of national forest that are under private management. The parks work and the national forests are sustained because it is in the financial best interest of the parties involved to make sure that life not only survives but thrives. You will not find a privately held photo safari park or a privately managed section of national forest land that has been as physically beaten up as our reefs.
Our reefs are being loved to death and something needs to change before divers kill them off completely. It's quite obvious that, while nearly all divers and dive ops claim to be environmentalists, the dive industry as it is currently configured here is it's own worst enemy. The time honored Florida traditions of spear fishing and lobster netting with SCUBA are unheard of in many parts of the world. The current prevailing attitude seems to be "touch it, it won't hurt you" rather than "don't touch it, you might hurt it". A privately held reef park that made it's living from licensing divers wouldn't promote the madness of mini season within it's borders any more than the owners of a golf course would promote a tractor pull on their 18th green.
If we can't police ourselves, then why not give someone else a shot at it? "Better the devil you know" just means you keep sleeping with the devil.
