Riding marine life

[Saltwater Junky]

Don't forget your spurs for better grip and longer ride.

 

[The Chairman]

Grabbing a Turtle? Might give him a shock, but basically no harm, no foul.

I agree with Walter: leave the turtles alone. They can suffer from shallow water blackout especially if their heart starts beating faster from being shocked.

I don't mind touching a few animals and I have been touched by a few in return. Manatee in particular seem to initiate touching and seem to love being scratched on their noses and under their flippers. But watch out for mom if she has a tiny bambino with her. I suffered some broken ribs while minding my business in Blue Spring several years ago.

 

[mike_s]

Grabbing a Turtle? Might give him a shock, but basically no harm, no foul.

.

I don't think that grabbing turtle hurts it. but it prob does stress it out.

The reason it swims when you grab it is that it's trying to get away. It also could make turtles afraid of divers or cause one to get aggressive and bite a diver, which would then give the turtles a bad name for biting tourists.


However, on the flip side, no one seems to get upset if someone pics up a crab or pushes a jellyfish out of the way. Why? they aren't loveable like dolphins, turtles, etc. go figure.

Animals at Sea World are habituated to humans and human contact. I would bet that any animal that gets upset with handling is not subjected to it at Sea World. If you work with animals, you can usually tell.

Sea World animals are like horses who are trained to be ridden. It is something they accept and are not distressed by. .

You're telling me! this Dolphin wasn't distressed at all.

I tell you, this is the last time I volunteer at Sea World for the Dolphin "Interaction" :shocked2:

 

[Zippsy]

I love "interacting" with marine life too when they initiate contact. Usually this involves getting cleaned by cleaner wrasse or letting moon wrasse enjoy their reflection in my mask. I just have trouble thinking "this whaleshark seems to be saying 'ride me'". Incidentally, whalesharks don't have secretions that protect their skin from infections. It still does not matter though.

 

[BDSC]

The bottom line for me is each of us have to make the decision to "touch or not touch" marine life when we're diving. It appears so far from this poll that better than 70% favor a "no touch" policy and if that's what you feel is right for you then I applaud your decision. If I see you uw I won't try to get you to touch something. But those folks that live by a "no touch" policy need to understand that while that decision may be the right one for them, it may not be the right for for others. I don't need for those people to come up to me uw and grab my arm and try and yell at me through their reg and wag their finger in the "no no" fashion. I also don't need for them to get back on the boat and try and preach to me how I should know better than to touch something because they'll get an earful back.

So unless I'm destroying something or obviously molesting something, which I don't do, respect my decision because I respect yours. One rule doesn't fit all.

 

[japan-diver]

Luckily I dive in a part of the world that has given me the chance to interact with a large variety of sea life including turtles, mantas, whale sharks and tons of small critters. The hard core do not touch anything in the ocean is a little extreme- if we were to go hiking on land we would touch the trees to feel the bark or lay down on the grass etc... (not advocating laying down on the coral). Touch is one of the ways we interact with the world and it with us. An educated diver will know what is safe to touch and what is not- I teach my students if you are not sure what the result of the touch will be don't.

That harmless touching of a pin cushion star or sea cucumber has greater chance of a killing one of the tiny critters that call that place home than a casual petting of a sea turtle or a whale shark. I have had sea turtles sit quite still while I cleaned there shell, I have had a whale shark repeatedly circle me while snorkeling and come back around after being touched- have seen the same things with mantas.

There are many times that touching a critter will do no harm and numerous times where the critter will initiate the contact. There is a quite a big difference between molesting critters and touching most divers can tell the difference.

 

[Zippsy]

I disagree that riding whaleshark, mantas or turtles is a personal decision and I do think it is wrong for everyone, and I would likely say so to anyone I catch doing it. Then again, BDSC, I reckon you are thinking of much drastic touching of possibly other marine life. In the recent particular incident that prompted my outrage, the divers were acually riding, holding on to, stroking, poking and tickling a whaleshark - all of which are illegal in the place it happened, and dumb, IMHO. As noted though, I'm a bit of a zealot when the issue seems clear to me.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Zealots bother me ... in all walks of life. Zealotry is almost always a sign of ignorance, carried to extremes by the self-righteous.

Live by your own conscience. Enforcing your conscience on others will rarely produce a positive result ... even when you have a valid reason. All it usually does is make people write you off as a dick. At best they'll ignore you ... at worst, you'll provoke a confrontation.

I once had someone give me a flaming hard time for interacting with a harbor seal. Never mind that the animal initiated the contact. Never mind that I literally had to push the seal aside because he was so aggressively seeking contact. To this dude's mind, it was a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and he wanted my head on a stick.

Needless to say, I wanted that stick up a part of his anatomy.

Self-appointed scuba police are almost always counter-productive. There are much more constructive ways of educating people ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[The Chairman]

Zealots bother me ... in all walks of life. Zealotry is almost always a sign of ignorance, carried to extremes by the self-righteous. //Snip// I once had someone give me a flaming hard time for interacting with a harbor seal. Never mind that the animal initiated the contact.

Blue Spring in Orange City Fl is known for having a ton of manatee there during the winter. They literally number in the hundreds. WOW.

Once, while getting my fins on to dive Blue Spring, three manatees came all the way up to the boil area. One of the younger ones ran into my buddy, Moose, knocking him over in the process. He was putting on his fins and the young manatee kept bothering him. I was also being bumped by the other young manatee. He kind of wiggled his fingers in the water trying to get the manatee to back up, when we heard this voice out of the crowd watching us: "You signed a paper that said you wouldn't touch the manatees!" Dan looked up to the platform with 50+ people on it and said, "Yes we did, but this manatee is touching me!"

We finished getting our fins on and escaped our mauling by diving into the spring. Wonderful dive as always, but there was a Park Ranger waiting for us at the exit. "Which one of you touched the manatee?" was her first words. Now usually, we always point the finger at each other trying to get the other in as much trouble as possible. Fortunately, we grasped that this was not the time or place and explained to her what had happened. She indicated that she thought we were lying and put us on notice that manatees were off limits! WHOA!

If you want to find Scuba Police... just go to Blue Spring. They really exist.

 

[Bob DBF]

I disagree that riding whaleshark, mantas or turtles is a personal decision and I do think it is wrong for everyone, and I would likely say so to anyone I catch doing it.

Getting up in the morning is a personal decision, so is lecturing people on what is right and wrong, so is the response to an unasked for lecture.

In the recent particular incident that prompted my outrage, the divers were actually riding, holding on to, stroking, poking and tickling a whaleshark - all of which are illegal in the place it happened, and dumb, IMHO. As noted though, I'm a bit of a zealot when the issue seems clear to me.

Because this activity, in this place, was illegal and you have clearly stated your opinion on the subject; Did you have these divers arrested and prosecuted for their crimes? If not you can climb down off your high horse and hang out with the rest of us, but it is your personal decision.


Bob
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There is no problem that can't be solved with a liberal application of sex, tequila, money, duct tape, or high explosives, not necessarily in that order.