New Shipwreck Rules For Canada

[cobaltbabe]

I agree with you concerning self policing.
We really don't do a good job.
Last Saturday there was an idiot kneeling on the deck of the Munsonand pulling on the reeling, when I asked him to get off the wreck he gave me the ok sign and ignored me. I assume he thought I was concerned about him. What is most disturbing though, is that there where really a whole bunch of diver on the wreck, which didn't prevent the diver from doing this crapp.
Also, if an organization or a club assume responsibility for a wreck, can they be made liable if someone removes an artifact or damages the wreck?

It is like putting the child in care of the cookie jar. You have all different levels of divers. To some feeding the fish is invading on the natural environment. I know this isn't the topic but if you find a nail beside a wreck do you take it or leave it? Some would say it is alright, where as other say no way. I say no way. I just think that what ever they decide it is going to be very hard to enforce. I have heard some of the arguments and concerns and they are all valid. I wish those doing this process luck.

 

[PatH]

...The diving community has been self policing for years and had done an OK job at it... No wreck should be off limits to Canadian divers...

Competent and caring divers visiting a wreck and not disturbing it do not hamper the survey or any excavation that may take place in the future and as such should not be restricted.

No... we haven't done an OK job at self-policing. As a matter of fact we are probably as bad at self-policing as the government is at policing. A survery, completed by trained divers, not beureacrats, might help with encouraging people to leave a wreck alone while at the same time capture sufficient information on the shipwreck to discover and tell its story. In this way marine heritage is served, not hidden.

I tend to agree that all wrecks should be open to competent divers as there is no benefit to marine heritage by leaving a shipwreck unvisited at the bottom of the lake until nature can render it unrecognizeable.

Now these competent and caring divers... are these the same ones that are doing the OK job at self-policing. First you need to revolutionize the industry and then you might have the building blocks necessary for this thought.

 

[Bubble Boy]

There will be another meeting just like this one happening in Ottawa in November for those who did not get to attend this one.

Anyone attending the meeting on the 25th?

 

[Kevin R]

I believe that is the one Dan MacKay and I are attending.

 

[DSV1]

This is just a question and not directed or meant to knock down your good effort. Who or what has given any of you the wright to tell any one what to do on, in or to a wreck in Canada. I understand from a charter point of view that if you have no wrecks you have no business. In my home town the Florida Keys we have a marine patrol that gives the charter operator a hefty fine if one of his paying divers is found damaging coral or spear fishing in park territory. I would think that until you have a designated park with rangers you realy can't do anything.

Just asking

DSV1

 

[JeffG]

Who or what has given any of you the wright to tell any one what to do on, in or to a wreck in Canada.

Being Citizens of Canada....Its an attempt at democracy. If they (Divers/Citizens) just sit on their hands..the goverment will just setup the rules...and when goverments act on their own...they typically $%^^%%$ it up.

 

[Groundhog246]

Who or what has given any of you the wright to tell any one what to do on, in or to a wreck in Canada.

In Ontario at least, there is a law against removing artifacts from a wreck (an artifact would be anything in or on the wreck, attached or not) or damaging one. Unfortuanely it's a law with no enforcment.
Is that close to an answer (since I'm not sure I understood the question).
We do have one designated 'park' in Tobermory, complete with Rangers and they do provide some enforcment, but mostly making sure divers are within the designated areas and that boats are outside of them, as well as making sure all divers have purchased a tag.

 

[starfish365]

So the day of the meeting has come and gone....who went....what happened????

 

[wetman]

From a self policing point of view, what is being proposed at some of these meetings? If someone is proposing more laws, what are we countering with that might be acceptable options? What about something like an ontario wreck diving card that charters wouldn't let you get on wrecks without? Costs some amount of money that goes towards public awareness, plus demonstration to an instructor qualified to teach it that you have the skills not to screw up a wreck and that you've been made aware of the laws and the reasons for them. Would that be acceptable to anyone? I don't think many people i know would have an issue with something like that. Give some grace period and then have it enforced.

steve