What I saw in that article was two things. It named one diver by name and his claim of 75% infection. It also claimed another report of 31 of 36 divers by an unnamed source. It also claimed there were numerous reports all over the net about the problem. Every report I have read (and I regularly peruse three different major scuba boards) cited the undercurrent article as the source and had several people posting after it saying "we just got back and had no problems". I could cite four named sources from trip reports just from the last month that have come back saying nobody was sick...does that make me a more reliable source than Undercurrent since I have twice as many sources? Not necessarily.
Also the undercurrent article made a statement to the effect that since this wasn't happening at any other resort, it must be a CCV problem. However they never cited any evidence that it wasn't happening elsewhere. It may just be that CCV divers tend to be more hardcore and are more active in posting info to dive communities that has bought them this attention. That could certainly be tracked by the number of trip reports from CCV compared to ones from AKR and FI here and at RSD. However, Undercurrent chose not to share that information, so I take the statement with a grain of salt. Based on my informal survey of the past month or so, I have read two reports for FI, about 6 for CCV, and one for AKR..mine. I also dispute the assertion that CCV is in "denial". If they were in denial, they would be claiming the problem doesn't exist. They admit it has existed and even documented past occurrences not cited by Undercurrent. They say what steps they have taken to try to combat it and even have invited guests who have an interest to inspect things for themselves. I am not sure what Undercurrent wanted CCV to say about the issue..."don't come here, you will get sick"???...they appeared open and honest about it, and in the absence of scientific testing of the system, I am not sure what else they could be doing. They are already providing bottled water (as is done all over cozumel).
That being said, I am not doubting the source in Undercurrent, but suggesting that maybe the "widespread" nature of the complaints might be a bit exaggerated, and the add-on affect of people citing the undercurrent story might be overstating the problem.
Just as a scientist, I see two things here that make me wonder about the periodic source of the mysterious affliction. First is the knowledge that overchlorination of drinking water will cause symptoms that are indistinguishable by non-medical personnel from those of turista. If they were adding too much chlorine for a period of time then adjusted it, it would explain the sudden disappearance. I was at a resort several years ago where the people we met who were leaving told us to be careful because they had been sick all week and so had everybody else. When we asked the manager where we could obtain bottled water, she admitted to us after the others left that she had figured out that the water was being overchlorinated and that the water should be fine now. We trusted her and had no problems, nor did anybody else there that week.
Also, it sounds like the months in question are the rainy season, and it is entirely possible that the rise in groundwater levels caused by long periods of rainfall could bring septic tank sewage or sewage from places up the hill from CCV into places where CCV divers could be exposed. This might also explain the smell.
I don't know the answer to who is right or wrong, but I do know that directing somebody to avoid CCV because of this issue that may or may not even be an issue right now is just as misleading as me citing several year old information and telling people FI is run down and their boats break down alot. It is one thing to cite an article describing an issue, its quite another to make unsubstantiated comments without any personal knowledge of the situation. The comments I am referring to are "it seems to be a rather common occurrence at coco and other resorts do not have the problem", (it was common for two groups according to the article, with no information showing it to be any more widespread than that and no indication that it WASNT happening elsewhere) or "apparently coco has been trying to address the issue unsuccessfully for a year or so and now is in denial mode" (they say it went from Oct to Jan, which is about 4 months, and even if it continues now is only a 7 month span. I haven't seen ANY recent reports of problems, so how can you say they were unsuccessful??).
I am all for open discussion of resorts, but if you haven't been there, have no first hand knowledge, and are basing all of what you are saying on one article (regardless of how much you trust them), you might want to be a little more circumspect in how forcefully you make a recommendation to another diver.
Aggiediver
