We don’t need no stinken leadership – divers just get it done. This morning Scubaboard members mobilized well over 120 man hours of labor and raised at least (from how low the canoe was riding) 800 pounds of beer bottles, cans, and assorted trash from the Santa Fe River near Ginnie Springs. Divers donate thousands of hours a year to efforts of organizations like Reef to monitor reef conditions, marine life on reefs, and protect reefs from invasive non-native species.
The dive community does what it can for the reefs in a low-key mode for a very good reason. For every 100 conscientious divers who help clean and maintain the reefs, promote the welfare of the reefs to friends and neighbors, promote and train low environmentally impacting diving, and dozens of other efforts there is one very loud mouthed uneducated enviro-whacko that screams that all diving should be banned because divers are destroying the ocean through their diving practices and the fuel they burn to go diving. Guess who will get the most press coverage in a showdown.
The overwhelming majority of divers I know whether they’re out to see the pretty fish, spear fish, hunt treasure, or explore caves fall into what I call conservationists as opposed to the more radical organized and vocal groups of environmentalists. When you actually spend time out in the diving community or any other outdoor pursuit you soon discover that the people participating understand their portion of the environment better than the ivory tower whinners who claim to provide “leadership” for environmental causes. In Florida we constantly see environmental organizations demanding people leave the planet – or at least stop doing what it is you enjoy because they’re afraid you’re upsetting some non-human animal. If divers raised the profile of any given problem in the ocean to high the environmentalists would instantly swoop in and shoot at the first available target – and that would be the divers who would be banned from the problem area as if that would solve a problem.
