Taking GPS coordinates of a site... captain's permission?

[NAM001]

Though the etiquete of asking first was the initial topic, It quickly turned into the reasonableness of the boats position, and where the line is in regards to captains authority. I think that there is a concensus that no place is secret once someone has been seen going there. " Hello welcome aboard harbor cruise's tour boat. If you look to the right you will see a dive pro boat full of divers about to dive a popular sectet dive spot. " The boats claim thier lively hood depends on secracy and yet in one posting they abuse the divers by charging for one trip and taking them to alternate destinations. It may take a thousand violations of locations security to harm a boat owner but it only takes one instance of a decietful boat operation to cut into revenues when someone pursues making the cummunity aware of the practice. Bottom line is that the operators need divers more than they need location security. If i have a choice of 2 cab companies to pick from and yellow cab says i can not have a map in the car. I am ging to use blue cab's to drive me. It is a double edged sword. Given that all operators have the same sites they go to, then the difference in operators are either the pricing or the amenities onboard. Untill one operator becomes the only boat in town, they really dont have any leverage on the passengers. Also operators know thier spots can not be secure and they most likely over charge anyway, similar to preformers raising gate charges to make up for pirated music. The point comes when the customer just doeant take it anymore and has no concern about the operators any more. Each and every confrontation leads to that conclusion. Unless there is something preticularly unique to a site,,, One site is the same as any other to a vacationer. No operator is going to respect another operators locations except through mutual bargined agreement. You dive the north side and i will dive the south side. Thge site locations are not an issue it is what you do with them, and what is done with the locations is not going to be done by the divers.

 

[Reck Diver]

You point me towards whatever statute or case you think supports your belief
that the basics of tort and criminal law go out the window because you're on a boat, and I'll consider you
something other than a misinformed layperson. Deal?

I'm not a lawyer, don't pretend to be one, even though I watch Law and Order. So I'll leave it to you. You can be the
lawyer for either side and finally be the judge and make the final ruling.

Here is the scenerio:

I was recently on a dive boat. Prior to boarding the Captain made an announcement that since we would be
visiting a little known spot with a real wreck (as opposed to a sanitized artificial one), operating a GPS device would
not be permitted. Any GPS devices found on board would be tossed overboard. Several people turned off their smart phones
and gave them to the captain who secured them in a locked case. As I planned to capture the GPS numbers, I had mine
left on and concealed it in my dry bag. Frankly, I thought the Captain was bluffing.

After coming up from my second dive, The boat began heading back and that is when I noticed my GPS is gone! I
confronted the Captain, who very matter-of-factly denied any knowledge of what may have happened to the device.
I reminded him of this statements prior to boarding about tossing and operating devices overboard. He once again denied
having anything to do with the disappearance of the device.

None of the other passengers admitted to seeing the Captain touch my stuff. After we docked, I called the Police.
I knew this was not a high priority from them, but after 30 minutes, a LEO showed up. He greeted the Captain by name
with a friendly handshake. It was apparent they were acquaintances.

After telling my story, the LEO stated without witnesses, or an admission from the Captain, there was nothing
he could do.

So... What Are My Options? What do you suppose is going to happen?

 

[Captain_Bob]

Reck Diver, the Captain should of thrown you over.

 

[Mike]

Would it be fare to suppose that rifling through your stuff and screwing with you had nothing to do with GPS but had more to do with breaking the balls of the guy who's such a pain in the ass?

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Blah blah blah blah

I'm sure you don't mind my paraphrasing, as I've changed the substance (or lack thereof) of your post not at all.

You haven't provided anything supporting your earlier claim. Instead, you have said 'Well, if they quietly toss your GPS device while you're out diving, what can you do about that if you didn't see what happened and have no proof!?' Obviously the answer is 'Basically nothing' - but the scenario you describe is not what was being discussed before. And it's no more realistic than a story where the dive boat mysteriously gets hulled in its slip later that night, but the captain can't do jack about it because nobody saw what happened.

 

[drrich2]

This thread is one marathon read. I hadn't known this was an issue. I never paid attention to GPS coordinates until a day or two ago I realized MacDive lets me input them, and a popular shore diving site has coordinates for some Bonaire sites, so MacDive can stick pins in Google Earth maps.

I didn't know my old iPhone 4 had GPS capability. So I load iPhoto on my Mac, look at the listings on the left side of the screen, and under Library, I see Events, Photos, Faces, Places. I click on Places. A map pops up of my area with pins. If I click on a pin, iPhoto pulls up photos taken there (by iPhone; my 'regular' cameras don't have GPS capability, but I figure my next (hopefully) will).

As others have mentioned, a lot of clueless people are probably logging 'secret' GPS coordinates and don't even know it. They're one 'Hey, what's that button do?' on a photo program away from accessing them. And with software like MacDive, people will start wanting the coordinates for those pins.

Richard.

 

[manni-yunk]

This thread is one marathon read. I hadn't known this was an issue. I never paid attention to GPS coordinates until a day or two ago I realized MacDive lets me input them, and a popular shore diving site has coordinates for some Bonaire sites, so MacDive can stick pins in Google Earth maps.

I didn't know my old iPhone 4 had GPS capability. So I load iPhoto on my Mac, look at the listings on the left side of the screen, and under Library, I see Events, Photos, Faces, Places. I click on Places. A map pops up of my area with pins. If I click on a pin, iPhoto pulls up photos taken there (by iPhone; my 'regular' cameras don't have GPS capability, but I figure my next (hopefully) will).

As others have mentioned, a lot of clueless people are probably logging 'secret' GPS coordinates and don't even know it. They're one 'Hey, what's that button do?' on a photo program away from accessing them. And with software like MacDive, people will start wanting the coordinates for those pins.

Richard.

people logging them secretly - or without anyone ever finding out - are not the real problem.....


I guess this is a regional thing...or - maybe a "living in an area with daily wreck diving and knowing people who make their living from it" VS - "vacation diver that never really thought about this topic" difference.


Again - around here, if a dive boat was going to a very known wreck (typically run as an open boat) - no one would care. But - most booked charters - and many others, would not allow a GPS - and you would not only be asked to leave the boat....but word would get around about your intentions.....and none of the boats would allow you on them.


I personally have NEVER turned anyone, who asked, away from using a GPS on my boat........But then again, I pick and choose which friends go to which dive sites and if I am going to a lessor known site - I would only invite the ones that I trust the most.


I have a few sites that have barely ever been dove....by anyone. And those numbers - I dont want to be out in the open.

 

[Reck Diver]

I'm sure you don't mind my paraphrasing, as I've changed the substance (or lack thereof) of your post not at all.

You haven't provided anything supporting your earlier claim. Instead, you have said 'Well, if they quietly toss your GPS device while you're out diving, what can you do about that if you didn't see what happened and have no proof!?' Obviously the answer is 'Basically nothing' - but the scenario you describe is not what was being discussed before. And it's no more realistic than a story where the dive boat mysteriously gets hulled in its slip later that night, but the captain can't do jack about it because nobody saw what happened.

Bottom line, my numbers remain secure, and the party attempting to steal them, got what was promised.

---------- Post added January 14th, 2013 at 10:57 PM ----------

Reck Diver, the Captain should of thrown you over.

You may be coming in late in this one. I am the Captain. I wrote that scenerio from the point-of-view of the person who was trying to steal numbers.

 

[redacted]

Bottom line, my numbers remain secure, and the party attempting to steal them, got what was promised.
.

You still have not identified your operation. Is it something you are not proud of?

 

[gcarter]

You still have not identified your operation. Is it something you are not proud of?