Help me keep diving, or requiem for my love of diving

[Wookie]

I love diving for the sake of diving. Is it the same as it was 20 years ago? Probably not, but there is more to look at than I can possibly see on a dive. But then, I love diving.

 

[Griffo]

Even in my 10 years diving i've seen massive changes in underwater life. It's truly sad, and every time i come back from a diving trip I get a renewed focus on challening friends and family to reduce their environmental impact.

I have a question for the board. Having come back from Coz and Belize, one of the things that stuck with me was just the complete lack of fishlife. Pretty structures, amazing vis, but no fish. Is this was is in store for the Pacific? Or are those areas just naturally like that?

 

[Doc]

@potato cod and the precise premise of your OP.

Yes, everywhere one dives has been degraded, since before we’ve been diving it.

Most of us had a first recreational look in the early 1970’s. Has is changed for the worse? Yes, absolutely, universally. I started in the Caribbean, and after repeat visits to specific dive locations in 1970, 80 and 90, no I won’t be going back to the ones that were the “must dive” list in 1970. I’m skipping the ones that were hot in 1980 and 1990, as well.

In the Caribbean, the Pickens are getting pretty thin for my past comparatives. Internationally? There are always new rocks to plunder.

Many divers I listen to on SI decry the “lack of fish”. Those are the divers who are real busy diving or checking out their depth gauges. I’m still seeing lots of fish. I’m not seeing as much/many as I used to see, but those speaking up about lack of fish are too young to have my base of reference. Maybe it’s a hip statement to make before someone else does.

Same for coral reef health reference this time versus whatever last glimpse you had. It doesn’t really work that way. Talk to me about watching it often and over a ten year period. Your comment about coral bleaching on this trip equates to background static on my end. I’ve seen so much of the incidences and comparative alarm, bzzzzzz.

It was not on topic, but the earlier post and suggestion about over-paying for a dive Trip by being convinced you’re on a scientific endeavor, stuff like that still amazes me that they can con people into that.

So, yes- there are places I no longer can be dragged to go diving. I could state the names, but it would not be fair or relevant, as to those on a first warm-water-pretty-fish (WWPF) dive, they will post the “it was just the bestest dive operation ever”! They will be 5* for sure on Twit Advisor and Cruise Critic.

Experiential bases expand, becoming jaded is a hazard.

 

[chris kippax]

I think you are diving in the wrong spots.

 

[happy-diver]

what a load of depressing rust belt tosh

take a good look in the mirror and go find a shipwreck

 

[potato cod]

Thanks for the many thoughtful replies. It's helpful to hear others' perspectives.

Yes, there are shipwrecks in the Great Lakes on my doorstep and I've done a handful of local dives, but the cold, green, murky water and mostly deeper wrecks are just not my jam and even less so my husband's.

I don't know that I've been diving the "wrong" places, but carefully choosing locations may be part of the solution. The Florida Keys have always been our go-to happy place and easy to get to on short breaks from work, so we've dove there on average every-other year since we started diving. On our 7th trip there last fall, we were really surprised by the disease that had impacted the coral over just a 3-year hiatus in diving there. The Bahamas may have been the "wrong" place given the lack of enforcement of fishing regulations. We were on a liveaboard and noted stark differences between the sites in the Exumas Marine Park and outside of it, for example. And the fish abundance was much, much lower than in the nearby Keys despite the rather healthier corals and greater structural complexity of the walls. On the other hand, it's hard to say a 7-day liveaboard to Australia's Osprey Reef/Coral Sea/Ribbon Reefs was the wrong place to dive. And that trip was amazing in many ways, don't get me wrong, but the loads of bleached corals we saw on this (our 3rd trip there) were undeniable. And part of the challenge is balancing the time and cost of getting to the Indo-Pacific vs the Caribbean for us. A single trip to the Pacific is easily 2x the cost of diving closer to home and many of our work breaks are not long enough to do so, so this option is only really possible every few years at best.

Tempering expectations and more time exploring and relaxing topside may be another part of the solution. IDK exactly what the way forward will look like, but I hope to find it.

 

[scrane]

There are still fantastic places in the world to dive. You just have to do your research and find them. I recently got back from two weeks of the best diving I've seen in 45 years.

 

[Ana]

Tempering expectations and more time exploring and relaxing topside may be another part of the solution. IDK exactly what the way forward will look like, but I hope to find it.

Good, that may be a solution for the next 7 dive trips, please keep us updated. Be nice to come back here in 2031 and read you're totally into diving.

 

[potato cod]

There are still fantastic places in the world to dive. You just have to do your research and find them. I recently got back from two weeks of the best diving I've seen in 45 years.

I'd love to know where you were, Scane.

 

[Charred]

I would toss out....is what is happening underwater really all that different from what is happening above the water? i would suggest the possibility that the topside is changing as well but because you live there you are normalized to the creeping changes.

Can you see the stars at night? How are the songbirds, butterflies and bees in your area? When was the last time you saw a wild fox, bear or big cat? Any air quality alerts in your area?

The ocean is by no means the only thing changing. It certainly is sad but given the changing planet you cannot curl up and ignore it. If anything this should trigger you to double down on recycling, energy conservation and maybe some ecotourism.

And vote.