Reef Killers

[Bedros A]

I agree with all of you...however in my opinion, poor training is NOT the only reason to blame....Some people are just idiots...a waste of precious oxygen and compressed air!

 

[Carribeandiver]

Geez, apparently I gave the wrong impression. First, I will dive with anyone, I certainly do not require a level of experience or skill before you can dive with me. Second, I feel EXTREMELY fortunate that when I my son got certified, I got a (pretty much) permanent dive buddy. Third, trust me, I had to improve ten-fold from when I first started to reach the level of horrible. But I did take a gazillion dive courses thinking that would make me skilled. Then I found out that skill comes with diving and diving and diving and diving. Now that I have over 500 dives, I am somewhat good enough to not constantly worry about my trim or buoyancy.
However, I was always conscious of the environment and tried as hard as I could to follow my one constant dive philosophy - "do not touch the wildlife and hope the wildlife does not touch me"
The point of my opening post was to point out that most divers who do not have the skills because they dive infrequently, really do not care about acquiring the skills. Many divers think standing on coral, touching coral or kicking coral is no big deal. They think it will grow back just like that branch I clipped off my tree in my front yard.
What they obviously overlook is that the coral may take decades or longer to grow back and with no reef, there will be no fish.
As for fish ID, well, it is just my personality to know what I am looking at so I bought a few of Paul Humann's books. When I see something I do not recognize, I look the sucker up. I am always finding new things - for example, my last trip I saw two slipper lobsters. A first for me and I had no idea what they were.
And yes, I took GUE at a time when I had no business even trying to perform skills that were well above my capabilities but I did meet some really nice, very highly skilled divers as well as meeting a ton of "nose-up-in-the-air" DIR divers who thought the rest of us should just stay out of the water. Well to them I say, you can have the caves and cold water springs, I will stick to open water where there are fish to see.

 

[ozzydamo]

Geez, apparently I gave the wrong impression. First, I will dive with anyone, I certainly do not require a level of experience or skill before you can dive with me. Second, I feel EXTREMELY fortunate that when I my son got certified, I got a (pretty much) permanent dive buddy. Third, trust me, I had to improve ten-fold from when I first started to reach the level of horrible. But I did take a gazillion dive courses thinking that would make me skilled. Then I found out that skill comes with diving and diving and diving and diving. Now that I have over 500 dives, I am somewhat good enough to not constantly worry about my trim or buoyancy.
However, I was always conscious of the environment and tried as hard as I could to follow my one constant dive philosophy - "do not touch the wildlife and hope the wildlife does not touch me"
The point of my opening post was to point out that most divers who do not have the skills because they dive infrequently, really do not care about acquiring the skills. Many divers think standing on coral, touching coral or kicking coral is no big deal. They think it will grow back just like that branch I clipped off my tree in my front yard.
What they obviously overlook is that the coral may take decades or longer to grow back and with no reef, there will be no fish.
As for fish ID, well, it is just my personality to know what I am looking at so I bought a few of Paul Humann's books. When I see something I do not recognize, I look the sucker up. I am always finding new things - for example, my last trip I saw two slipper lobsters. A first for me and I had no idea what they were.
And yes, I took GUE at a time when I had no business even trying to perform skills that were well above my capabilities but I did meet some really nice, very highly skilled divers as well as meeting a ton of "nose-up-in-the-air" DIR divers who thought the rest of us should just stay out of the water. Well to them I say, you can have the caves and cold water springs, I will stick to open water where there are fish to see.

Not just "poorly" experienced divers destroy coral-
Water temperature is the biggest killer of reef on the planet, so getting off fossil fuels would be the first priority to save reefs.........fusion reaction is needed, oil and fossil fuel companies hate the idea, "they" try now to slow it's induction.
BP, Mobil, Shell, etc has killed so much more coral then all the divers that have lived or ever will live.

 

[freshorangina]

Ozzydamo is right, environmental impacts are much larger "Reefkillers" than divers. Ocean acidification, silting from development, eutrophication from runoff, tropical storms, hurricanes and tsunamis, oil spills and more. That being said, diver impact is also significant, in particular because so much diving takes place in the most diverse and fragile ecosystems, as it is the beauty of those ecosystem that brings the hordes. Much tropical reef diving takes place in protected areas and this is important because these parks need more than designations, they need funding. With funding comes the ability to manage these areas. In your example of the Bonaire Marine Park, because of their management plan there is actually a lot you could have done. First off, you see someone sitting on the reef, tell them to lift up, MPA rules state you must stay off the reef. If they ignore you, you can report them, the DM and the resort to STINAPA. It is not the case everywhere, but disobeying the rules in Bonaire can carry heavy fines.

The other problem with diver impact is that with all of these other environmental stressors taxing the immune systems of the corals, damage we cause is not easily recovered from. It's like beating up someone who is already sitting in a hospital bed. Every academic study I have read on the topic also demonstrates that in the vast majority of cases, it is 4% of divers who cause 70% of the damage. These divers are typically new divers who have no buoyancy control, old divers who think the rule do not apply to them, and underwater photographers. This is why in certain areas, new substrate is being installed in the forms of underwater museums and such, to create new dives sites with artificial reefs. By diverting certain segments to these sites, it gives the natural sites a bit more "room to recover". The other, easier, free and more practical solution entails the cooperation of dive shops and DMs. Doing a simple "orientation" on the boat can improve diver impact dramatically. Refresh people's memory about reef ecology and fragility and reiterate the MPA rules and codes of conduct. Go over buoyancy control methods. You would all probably be shocked and dismayed to know how few divers actually know that coral is a living animal. I know I was when I started researching this topic.

Write to your favourite marine parks and tell them they should start doing these orientations, ask the DM the next time you get on a boat, or ask if you can mention a few words, and when you do, do it in an informative style. Contribute to these parks with donations or volunteering. IMO, they should all be charging reef fees. Support conservation and your investment will grow so the next generation can appreciate your efforts.

Carey

 

[tddfleming]

Or, they are just pretending to be Mike Nelson from Sea Hunt. He is the most hand using, silt monster, bicycle kicking scuba diver ever And for God's sake, put on a pair of pants and get that crouch out of my face.

 

[danegr]

Dear Carribean Diver who's poo has no smell. I only say that for the dig on quarry/mudhole divers. We mudholers hear a phrase repeated over and over. "If you can dive here, you can dive any ware". We do not enjoy the blue warm water with the wonderful viz and abundant life often, but we use the quarries to make sure we have it down when we arrive. Diving with silt is way more difficult than simply not touching the reef. Being aware that a movement you make near the bottom will affect silt gives you skills you Salty Dawgs know little about. To me the issue is how to get it across to the "ReefKiller" that they are doing something that needs to stop. ClayJar made some fantastic points that I will be using...leading by example. But there are some case where direct and immediate ass chewing has got to happen. I was recently in Key Largo diving with a gentleman who was in his 60's and claimed to have been diving for 40 years. He took a camera down with him and we (mudholers) observed him laying on the reef. Using beautiful purple tube sponges to reposition himself for a closer shot, snapping off chunks of coral and stirring up so much sand that all you could do was flee and hope that a barracuda would handle it. Later, on the boat I was trying to figure out how to approach him. I spoke to a crew member who simply shook their head and said "*******" under his breath. Finally in a conversation with another diver I was able to bring up (loudly) not touching the reef. He knew I was aiming my comments at him, to which he replied, "I get my best shots laying on the coral". I asked him if it mattered at all to him that he was killing the reef. He said "back when I was certified we use to bring that stuff up to the boat for souvenirs". I explained with a sh*ty tone that I didn't appreciate him screwing it up for the next generation of divers. He laughed and went on about his business. Not one crew member said anything and neither did the captain. Not being sure if I was out of line, I retreated. I figured somebody else on the boat would have jumped in and said something. Nothing. And there were several experienced salt water divers on that boat. I can say that my quarry training and trainers drilled into our heads "touch or take nothing, leave only bubbles". I have to assume from this that people trained in salty water need an additional course in Environmental Awareness!!! I am only kidding. I do however think there should be less fear from all of us to jump someones sh*t for causing damage.

 

[Thalassamania]

...
A while back I read a very interesting interview in "The Wrong Stuff", a Slate feature by Kathryn Schulz:
Into Thin Error: Mountaineer Ed Viesturs on Making Mistakes. It's a fascinating interview, and I highly recommend reading it. At the moment, however, there is one sentence from it that I'd like to bring out:

When you're less experienced, you don't even know about the mistakes you're making.​

Making a skilled-enough diver takes several things. First, they need to know that there's something to learn. Then they need a desire to learn it. And finally they need the practice/experience to acquire it.

The problem you apparently encounter often with divers from different locales is that nobody told them there was more they might need to learn. In your case, it's quarry divers coming to open salty seas and not having the skills and knowledge to dive around coral. In a quarry diver's case, it's warm water divers showing up without cold and silt-bottom experience and messing up everyone's viz. Everything looks obvious in hindsight, but how are they supposed to know what it is they don't know.

...

You're only reveling the tip of the iceberg. Inexperienced divers do not understand the mistakes that they're making because often their instructors were too inexperienced to have learned about that from the inexperience Course Director, despite the fact that everyone involved thought that they knew what they were doing.

 

[Carribeandiver]

Not just "poorly" experienced divers destroy coral-
Water temperature is the biggest killer of reef on the planet, so getting off fossil fuels would be the first priority to save reefs.........fusion reaction is needed, oil and fossil fuel companies hate the idea, "they" try now to slow it's induction.
BP, Mobil, Shell, etc has killed so much more coral then all the divers that have lived or ever will live.

PLEASE let's keep politics out of this. Global warming may be a fact but the promotion by liberal groups and politicians has an agenda that has nothing to do with protecting the environment. MANY, many scientists have dismissed global warming but funny how they get no press because it does not coincide with the agenda of those who want to make money from creating a scam.

 

[Carribeandiver]

Dear Carribean Diver who's poo has no smell. I only say that for the dig on quarry/mudhole divers. We mudholers hear a phrase repeated over and over. "If you can dive here, you can dive any ware". We do not enjoy the blue warm water with the wonderful viz and abundant life often, but we use the quarries to make sure we have it down when we arrive. Diving with silt is way more difficult than simply not touching the reef. Being aware that a movement you make near the bottom will affect silt gives you skills you Salty Dawgs know little about. To me the issue is how to get it across to the "ReefKiller" that they are doing something that needs to stop. ClayJar made some fantastic points that I will be using...leading by example. But there are some case where direct and immediate ass chewing has got to happen. I was recently in Key Largo diving with a gentleman who was in his 60's and claimed to have been diving for 40 years. He took a camera down with him and we (mudholers) observed him laying on the reef. Using beautiful purple tube sponges to reposition himself for a closer shot, snapping off chunks of coral and stirring up so much sand that all you could do was flee and hope that a barracuda would handle it. Later, on the boat I was trying to figure out how to approach him. I spoke to a crew member who simply shook their head and said "*******" under his breath. Finally in a conversation with another diver I was able to bring up (loudly) not touching the reef. He knew I was aiming my comments at him, to which he replied, "I get my best shots laying on the coral". I asked him if it mattered at all to him that he was killing the reef. He said "back when I was certified we use to bring that stuff up to the boat for souvenirs". I explained with a sh*ty tone that I didn't appreciate him screwing it up for the next generation of divers. He laughed and went on about his business. Not one crew member said anything and neither did the captain. Not being sure if I was out of line, I retreated. I figured somebody else on the boat would have jumped in and said something. Nothing. And there were several experienced salt water divers on that boat. I can say that my quarry training and trainers drilled into our heads "touch or take nothing, leave only bubbles". I have to assume from this that people trained in salty water need an additional course in Environmental Awareness!!! I am only kidding. I do however think there should be less fear from all of us to jump someones sh*t for causing damage.

HEY! when was this dive trip in Key Largo? May, by any chance? I think I was on the boat with this guy. I "talked" to the guy but all I got was a bad attitude and the stupid statement, "we all make our mark". I just walked off thinking nothing is going to change this guy unless, as you suggest, we get lucky and a barracuda gets him. Where are the great whites when you need them?
And as for crew members, on my boat, one of the instructors tried to talk with him but that went nowhere so he walked off too.
Really, funny, this guy naturally had a camera and claimed to be diving for 40 years. This has to be the same clown. He had a dive buddy who was almost as bad, maybe a bit younger, the old one was in his late 60's, the younger one in his 50's or so.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It has to start with the experienced divers setting a good example. When I dive with new divers, there's usually some "I want me some of that" epiphany going on by the end of the dive ... nobody really wants to struggle in the water, since it's much more fun to move easily and with some semblance of grace. But if you're gonna reach people, you have to do so in a non-judgmental way ... we were all where they are at some point.

It also has to start with leadership. I cringe when I recall my "checkout dive" in Roatan ... where I did the requisite basic skills hovering only to have the DM insist that I do them again while kneeling ... so that he could "assure that I was properly weighted". What kind of message is that sending to divers who have only ever been exposed to kneeling while doing simple things like clearing a mask or taking a compass heading?

Then there's that awful photo in Dive Training magazine, showing divers WALKING on the bottom watching their compass. What's the message there ... and from a magazine that most divers accept as an "authority" on how to dive ...

Let's face it ... the people who make their money in the dive industry are, for the most part, not emphasizing good skills because they believe the industry is best served by promoting cheap, fast and easy ... and no one becomes skilled at anything by following that business model.

It's all about money ... and as someone mentioned earlier, the damage to the reefs will continue until they are gone ... at which point, the enterpreneurs who created the dive industry will move on to some other business. The trend in the industry is cranking out divers like the DM mentioned in the OP ... who will, himself, probably go on to become an instructor who will be instilling his own skill deficiencies into the next generation of divers ... and rationalizing why those skills aren't needed anyway.

We see that sort of logic here on ScubaBoard regularly ... I don't expect it to change anytime soon ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)