Can't believe what I am seeing...

[Nemrod]

Coral coring, fish collecting come to mind, scrunching down on the coral for photos, dropping anchors on the coral, blasting etc

BTW, I am a geologist, spent a summer for a major oil company studying modern depositional analogs to ancient reef and carbonate systems. Wrote a 300 page internal document on my findings. I have a MS Plus 30 in Geoscience and I have seen research people at their best and worse. Some tend to think they have dispensation for their damage since they are doing good--kinda like Al Goron purchasing fake carbon credits to offset his non-green lifestyle and travel habits. N

 

[DivingsInMyBlood]

Hell, I thought everyone knew what a stromtolite was. Around here it is an ataached, lithified sedimentary growth structure, accretionary away from a point or limited surface of initiation. Some types ore morphologies including conical, stratiform, branchi g, dormal and columnar.Probably formed by the trapping, binding and cementation of sedimentary grains by microorganisms like cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). Pretty simple when you think about it.

I have no idea what you just said but it sounds interesting.

 

[Kbear]

How many of you divers that are extra carfull to keep danglies off the reef eat shrimp?
The shrimpers nets draging over the oceans bottom does way more destruction than a sport divers danglie. So as it is important not to drag your octo on the bottom you may do more good if you don't eat shrimp.

Son of a B..... Now I have to give up shrimp.

If you take crab and lobster away from me, (And I know you will ,) I'm gonna be seriously depressed.

 

[The Chairman]

BTW, I am a geologist, spent a summer for a major oil company studying modern depositional analogs to ancient reef and carbonate systems. Wrote a 300 page internal document on my findings. I have a MS Plus 30 in Geoscience and I have seen research people at their best and worse.

Whoa... but can you claim a CFR 1910.401(a)(2)(iv) industrial super studly diver exemption? If not you're just passing wind!

Oh yeah, you have to have a babysitter, er DSO there as well.

 

[Thalassamania]

Whoa... but can you claim a CFR 1910.401(a)(2)(iv) industrial super studly diver exemption? If not you're just passing wind!

Oh yeah, you have to have a babysitter, er DSO there as well.

Yes I can and SO can most of the divers I know, work with or have trained. And I do wish the I could babysit each and every one of them, all the time, they go some neat places.

 

[Nemrod]

It is commonly known ( and got my entire paleontolgy class arrested in Texas) that you get a geologist plus a rock plus a hammer and that equals him/her taking a sample. But, they all look real good in my flower beds, my mom's flower beds, my sister's flower beds and I know where each and every one is and where it came from. N

 

[Rockhound76]

I'm a geologist, as well, and have boxes and boxes of rocks to prove it.

I also worked as a "research" diver in college. My accreditation consisted of "So, you can dive AND you have all your own gear? Man, do we have a job for you!"

I was surprised at the kinds of diving we did, the quality of the equipment and the methods. Most of the wetsuits had more holes in them than swiss cheese. Much of the equipment was awful (mine was pretty good. remember the AT PAC?). Consoles? These guys were lucky if they had accurate depth gauges.

I remember diving attached to a boat anchor in a channel in a tidal current so bad it made underwater tornadoes all around me. Tide tables? No way, we had to dive on the time table of the critters we were studying. I just ran the anchor line through a block on my d-ring and tied myself off. If I had to move, it was hand over hand upcurrent. When I got down, I picked the anchor up and drifted back or swam it laterally.

Btw, I got paid in beer by a priest, which was the highlight of my education.

Hehehe.

 

[Kamchatka]

...But then the average sport diver probably doesn't know what a stromatolite is.

I have one; it has rechargeable batteries!

 

[Thalassamania]

I also worked as a "research" diver in college. My accreditation consisted of "So, you can dive AND you have all your own gear? Man, do we have a job for you!"

I was surprised at the kinds of diving we did, the quality of the equipment and the methods. Most of the wetsuits had more holes in them than swiss cheese. Much of the equipment was awful (mine was pretty good. remember the AT PAC?). Consoles? These guys were lucky if they had accurate depth gauges.

I remember diving attached to a boat anchor in a channel in a tidal current so bad it made underwater tornadoes all around me. Tide tables? No way, we had to dive on the time table of the critters we were studying. I just ran the anchor line through a block on my d-ring and tied myself off. If I had to move, it was hand over hand upcurrent. When I got down, I picked the anchor up and drifted back or swam it laterally.

Btw, I got paid in beer by a priest, which was the highlight of my education.

Hehehe.

I'm glad you survived with no more damage than a few good stories. I don't know where you went to school, but that would have been intolerable at all institutions that I am familiar with. Exposing the institution to that sort of liability risk would have earned your sponsor rather serious consequences.

 

[Rockhound76]

This was a LONG time ago (I'm old...okay, not as old as you), but is was before lawyers ran the world and individual responsibility became passe'.

Our deep divers and tecktite divers were well trained--and had REAL institutional training. Those of us working shallow projects (collections, running vibra-cores) for the sea lab were also well-trained, or more correctly TESTED, but to my recollection, there was no handing out of of acronym covered papers to prove it--just a course in "Scientific Diving" that I enjoyed but didn't consider a "certification".

Maybe it was the times, but I'm sure it wasn't the place....it has a great rep. I absolutely did not mean it to imply it was a cavalier culture, just an impoverished one...focused more on data collection than diving asthetics. To imply otherwise would be unfair of me.

To be honest, I would LOVE to take a course in UW archeology and do some volunteer diving. My guess is, they wouldn't want an old doofus like me....hehehe