Update me on the state of scuba diving

[60plus]

Depends on whether you are referring to the state of scuba diving or the state of the environment in which scuba takes place. Scuba diving seems pretty buoyant in northern UK, canary Islands and Portugal. Fish populations seem pretty good in Canary Islands but UK and Atlantic coast of Europe between Portugal and UK seems pretty well fished out.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I dove both for the first time in the fall of 2016. Both via liveaboard. I made the mistake of diving GBR after Indonesia....I was underwhelmed. For GBR, it was the Ribbon Reefs/Coral Sea/Osprey and in Indo, it was Komodo. Indonesia’s diving was better to me as far as diversity, life (density), color, hard and soft corals, sponges, etc. GBR is good diving and still fun to dive, but I thought Indonesia was much better.

I have since returned to Indonesia and dived Raja Ampat as well which was very good and Lembeh to throw something different in the mix.

 

[bladder]

I've been diving since the 1980s, and I've found the differences in the quality of the reefs to be stunning.

During a recent return to Cozumel I was eagerly anticipating a few dives on sites that I had logged as outstanding, especially the deep Palancar reefs which were teeming with fish life on my first trip in 2005 [sorry wrote 2010 here originally- my bad]. I requested we do this reef on our first dive in 4/17. This time around, the Palancar deep reefs were desolate wastelands almost devoid of marine life. There were a few dives on that Coz trip that were still really nice and approached the quality of the original trip in 2005 but the differences were clear.

During a recent trip to South Florida I didn't find one reef dive to be worth repeating, it was actually depressing to drift along reefs devoid of coral and fish, although the wrecks were great and still had high concentrations of marine life and the rock piles in between the wrecks of West Palm Beach were loaded with fish of all sizes including Goliath groupers and sharks.

Indeed, Seadwellers of Key Largo have a blog on their site with an article that says 90% of the reefs in the Florida Keys are destroyed.

Trips during the past 5 years to Bonaire, Roatan, Grand Cayman, and the Bahamas will not be repeated, it's simply not worth the time, the expense and the effort to dive relatively barren reefs. Even Cozumel is somewhat questionable at this point.

This week I've read about mass destruction of reefs, the floating plastic garbage pile in the Pacific that is 3x the size of France, and saw pictures of the island of Midway covered with plastic garbage. Aside from the wrecks the number of places to enjoy a quality dive in the US and Caribbean are becoming few and far between.

 

[woodcarver]

Haven't been to Coz in a couple years, so don't know what it looks like now, but for the last 3 years we've been going to Bonaire. While I've read some posts saying Bonaire isn't what it used to be, I have not seen any noticable change to the reefs or the wildlife.
My brother lives there and has been diving there several times a week for almost 5 years. He's not seen any significant changes other than what Mother Nature has caused, such as the change to Pink Beach as a result of an unusual storm.
Reefs will change. It's the nature of Nature. Irma, and other storms, have been hitting reefs since the dawn of time. They are still there. In our brief time as divers, we only get to experience these sites as they exist today, after who knows how many changes through the ages. The next generation will get to see the next iteration. The generation after that, another.
While one region is rebuilding itself, another will be that "great" area to dive. Even in that "great" place, there might be pieces of it that are "under repair".
Go dive! Enjoy the version of the sea as it exists in our time!

 

[pjhansman]

During a recent return to Cozumel I was eagerly anticipating a few dives on sites that I had logged as outstanding, especially the deep Palancar reefs which were teeming with fish life on my first trip in 2010. I requested we do this reef on our first dive in 4/17. This time around, the Palancar deep reefs were desolate wastelands almost devoid of marine life. There were a few dives on that Coz trip that were still really nice and approached the quality of the original trip in 2005 but the differences were clear.

Interesting.....we've been diving Coz every year since 2010 and have found the reefs have improved year after year. The variety of marine life seems to change from year to year.

 

[bladder]

Interesting.....we've been diving Coz every year since 2010 and have found the reefs have improved year after year. The variety of marine life seems to change from year to year.

Not all that interesting. You didn't see the reefs in 2005.

 

[Cowfish Aesthetic]

Trips during the past 5 years to Bonaire, Roatan, Grand Cayman, and the Bahamas will not be repeated, it's simply not worth the time, the expense and the effort to dive relatively barren reefs. Even Cozumel is somewhat questionable at this point.

I always love meeting someone who walked barefoot and uphill both ways to school.

 

[woodcarver]

Not all that interesting. You didn't see the reefs in 2005.

Or in 1905, or in 1840, or 1661, or .....

 

[pjhansman]

especially the deep Palancar reefs which were teeming with fish life on my first trip in 2010

Not all that interesting. You didn't see the reefs in 2005.

According to your post....neither did you. In fact, Hurricane Emily did see it in 2005 and the reefs have been recovering ever since.

 

[bladder]

According to your post....neither did you. In fact, Hurricane Emily did see it in 2005 and the reefs have been recovering ever since.

I made a booboo in that post, you can see where I used 2005 and 2010 interchangeably.

Fixed to reflect 2005