Puffer Fish Squeezing

[CalCola]

strictly look but dont touch!
theres an awful lot of dms in cancun that feel inflating puffers, pulling nurse sharks out of there caves, riding turles and stressing octopus gains them more tips because they provide more entertainment for the customer, leave them alone, respect their habitat and their way of life, look but do not touch

I've never experienced this, but I would hope that if I was on a dive where the DM was doing this I would have the courage to NOT tip them and explain why.

Maybe if enough divers do this, they will find it is in their best interest to set a good example and not molest the wildlife.

 

[SteveAD]

go all Mike Nelson on him and cut his airhose.

 

[Teamcasa]

"Cut his air hose"



Dave

 

[Mr.X]

go all Mike Nelson on him and cut his airhose.

LOL! I do remember all those cut hose scenes! They must have had sharp knives.


As per harassing animals...I teach my students to observe - and as best as they can be a part of the natural environment. I remember taking some students for a dive on Catalina in a protected cove. Some divers in a Joe's rent a boat happened to splash in after us. We saw them pounding on turban snails, etc with rocks. They did this apparently to show us how it should be done. None of the fish took the smashed snails for food. My students and I got very upset and surfaced the group.
We told them it was a protected area and to stop. They told us a divemaster in Avalon had showed them that this was the thing to do! Geez!

X

 

[drbill]

Bill ... is this really what you meant to type? Are you really a professional invertebrate psychologist? How exactly do you psychoanalyze an invertebrate?

Just a little bit of my sense of humor... need it after your Colts thumped my Bears! I'm actually trained as a marine phycologist, but spend most of my time with inverts and fish (they're much more communicative than kelp... but you can touch kelp all you want!).

 

[drbill]

strictly look but dont touch!
theres an awful lot of dms in cancun that feel inflating puffers, pulling nurse sharks out of there caves, riding turles and stressing octopus gains them more tips because they provide more entertainment for the customer, leave them alone, respect their habitat and their way of life, look but do not touch

Any DM I see doing that automatically loses my tip and gets reported to their dive op owner (assuming they care).

 

[Puffer Fish]

Hi!

About a year ago, while on a night dive in Molokini on Maui, my son (13) and I were put in a small group with an older man, his daughter (late 20's) and a dive master. I attempted to talk to these people but they were generally unfriendly. It was my first night dive and I was focused on lots of things.

When we decended we hung together as a group pretty well, the DM was leading us. I was next to this guy, who tapped on his tank for his daughters attention, then he attacked a Puffer fish with both hands. He caused the puffer to expand to the size of a basketball.

The divemaster then saw the fish, but not the incident that caused the puffer to expand, and we all looked at fish. I was pretty horrified. This is Molokini, a preserve and people are supposed to respect the environment.

When we returned to the boat, I was pissed, but I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything. The people who ran the operation were one of the best in Hawaii, I wrote to the company about the incident and got an email back from the owner saying he'd discuss it with the people on the boat.

Am I overreacting? Any suggestions for what I should do if it happens again?

Bill Kelly

You were upset.... was the puffer's name Steve?... because lot of the family were upset about that....

 

[almitywife]

You were upset.... was the puffer's name Steve?... because lot of the family were upset about that....

:lol:

i do prefer the look but dont touch way of things

 

[alcina]

It is important to make it very clear to the dive op and guides that you do not tolerate touching, moving, handling, annoying or otherwise mucking about with the marine life BEFORE you book/get in the water with them. If they imply that they do this, go somewhere else. If they assure you they don't but then do, get up 'em about it. It's not OK.

If you see another diver doing it, let them know it's not OK - how you do this will depend on the circumstances, but it's not something to let slide. They may simply not know any better; they may be complete tossers...

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Just a little bit of my sense of humor... need it after your Colts thumped my Bears! I'm actually trained as a marine phycologist, but spend most of my time with inverts and fish (they're much more communicative than kelp... but you can touch kelp all you want!).

Well then, much laughter to follow! That was very, very funny!!

As far as intentionally bothering or stressing anything underwater ... very uncool thing to do. Around these parts we call those people red necks.