Salt water crocs

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I love Cozumel trivia! I'll bet there just may be a few other people out there who do too!
Here is a quiz: When and where was the Christ statue first placed, before it ended up at Chankanaab and who was the artist who made it?
Since you don't like trivia, Texasguy, what are your questions about shore dives?
 
Last January 2012 while diving with Dario from Aldora we saw a croc pretty far out from the shore as we surfaced after our dive. All the divers were amazed that it would be that far out and that close to the reefs. I would say it was probably 100 yards from where we surfaced. I want to say we were finishing a dive at paso de cedral or la francessa. Even Dario was a amazed there was a croc out there.
 
I love Cozumel trivia! I'll bet there just may be a few other people out there who do too!
Here is a quiz: When and where was the Christ statue first placed, before it ended up at Chankanaab and who was the artist who made it?
Since you don't like trivia, Texasguy, what are your questions about shore dives?

I wouldn't say I don't like trivia, just have not been that often to Cozumel to have feelings for it as yet.

My question is if any dive shop on the beach allows shore dives, rents tanks for a shore dive. From my research it seems like there is a lot of conflicting information to rely on. One way would be to find out once I am there but it would be nice if I did not have to (in our day and age of internet). It seems like shore diving is not popular and there is virtually no verified info on which dive shops do provide tanks for a shore dive.
 
I wouldn't say I don't like trivia, just have not been that often to Cozumel to have feelings for it as yet.

My question is if any dive shop on the beach allows shore dives, rents tanks for a shore dive. From my research it seems like there is a lot of conflicting information to rely on. One way would be to find out once I am there but it would be nice if I did not have to (in our day and age of internet). It seems like shore diving is not popular and there is virtually no verified info on which dive shops do provide tanks for a shore dive.
From what I gather here and easily obtainable on the internet is that Villa Blanca has a nice shore dive and tanks are available for rent from at least one nearby dive shop. I found a shop yesterday that said they rent tanks for shore dives there, but can't remember which shop it was.
 
Hi Texasguy.

There are several points to take into account in answering your question about shore dives in Cozumel. They are:

1. Is the area you want to shore dive within the boundaries of the Parque Marino Nacional de Arrecifes de Cozumel?
2. Is the entry/exit point you want to use public land, or land under a federal concession (a ZOFEMAT concession) and is the concession holder willing to let you use his beach as an entry/exitpoint?
3. Which dive operations are willing to rent you tanks that you can walk away with and use on your own?

Part 1:
If you want to dive from shore INSIDE the boundaries of the Parque Marino Nacional de Arrecifes de Cozumel, (our national underwater park, see The Big Yellow Beach Map at the EverythingCozumel site to see those boundaries), legally you need to follow park rules (available at http://www.conanp.gob.mx/que_hacemos/pdf/programas_manejo/cozumel.pdf). Two rules that stand out are:

Rule 20. ALL recreational dives (both SCUBA and FREE DIVING) must be supervised by at least one dive guide that has been authorized by INE (Institute of National Ecology) and in good standing with SECTUR (Secretary of Tourism).
Rule 24. Entry and exit points for shore dives must be in sandy areas free of coral.

Do people break these rules (which are backed by federal law)? Yes, all the time. Do people run red lights and not get a ticket? Yes, all the time.
The park is administered and watched overjointly by:

La Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT)
Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Medio Ambiente (PROFEPA)
La Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas(CONANP)
Secretaria de Transporte (SCT) via the Capitanía dePuerto

Part 2 of the answer addresses the fact that all of Cozumel’s shoreline is a Federal Zone that falls under the regulations of ZOFEMAT (Zona Federal Marítimo Terrestre). This zone extends landward 67 feet from the high tide mark. Most of this swath of federal land is open to the public for their use and enjoyment, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The exceptions to the rule are the areas around Mexican Navy installations, Administación Portuaria Integral (API) installations, and municipal piers. Municipal, state, and national parks (like Chankanaab Park and the Punta Sur Park) also have times when they are closed to the public, as does all the beach and water in the Parque Marino Nacional de Arrecifes de Cozumel. There are also sections of the beach where the government has granted a concession to the adjoining property owner.

The special concessions covering sections of this swath of oceanfront are sold by ZOFEMAT to property owners who have title to land adjacent to it (or to someone else, if the property owner doesn’t exercise his first right of refusal), so that the property owner can develop the land in that part of the federal zone adjacent to their property as well as restrict public use of it. These special concessions are usually granted to hotels, condo projects, beach clubs, bars, and restaurants. Typically, a homeowner with beachfront property does not buy a concession, but there are many cases where they do. However, wherever concessions have been granted, the public ONLY has the right of access THROUGH the concession, and NOT THROUGH the private property adjoining the concession. That means if you don’t have the permission of the concession holder to cross their land to get to the beach, you can only access the beach by crossing public land to one side or the other of the concession and walking down the beach to the concession area to where you want to enter the water. It also means you ONLY have the right to PASS THROUGH the concession; you do not have the right to USE any of the amenities that the concession holder has placed there (palapas, umbrellas, tables, chairs, restrooms, showers, etc.) without permission.

I must stress the point that you cannot just walk through private property to get to the beach; that is trespassing. In Mexico, trespassing is a classified as a serious felony, and anyone arrested for a serious felony goes to jail and then awaits trial (no bail) as Mexico uses the Napoleonic Code of Law (guilty until proven innocent) and not English Common Law (innocent until proven guilty). DO NOT USE THE BEACH of a concession without express permission of the concession holder. Many of the public access points to the water surrounding Cozumel are marked on the Big Yellow Beach Map of Cozumel mentioned earlier.

Part 3 of the answer is something that you will have to find out for yourself by asking your dive operator. Some of the dive operations will rent you tanks to take and make a shore dive by yourself, and some of them won’t. The reason that some of them won’t (one of the shops told me) is that sometimes the divers don’t bring the tanks back and that there have also been occasions where the diver went in solo and disappeared.

Dive Paradise-Hotel Baracuda, Jeanie's restaurant, Aqua World, Cozumel Palace, Scuba Club Cozumel, Dive Paradise sur, Hotel Cozumel Resort, Tio Jose's, Yuk-T-Ko's, Blue Angel, Dive Paradise-La Hach, Villa Blanca-Papa Hog's, Barracruda, Discover Scuba, TikiLa, Del Mar, Park Royal, and El Cid all have concessions north of the underwater park and are outside of its limits, as are all the hotels and beach clubs in the northern hotel zone.

Now, that's a lot of trivia!
 
Thank you. One of the most useful & informative posts I've read here lately. Shouldn't that be a sticky?
 
Ok, that was scary. I don't think I want to spend my money there anymore.

Sorry to hear that, Texasguy.
 
Thank you. One of the most useful & informative posts I've read here lately. Shouldn't that be a sticky?

Everything EG says is sticky material....
 

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