"Observations show an average 260 touches per one hour dive for a party of four."

[foob]

Mexico has a rule that you have to stay a certain distance from any whale shark. What would be wrong with a rule that divers have to stay 3M off the reef unless they have total buoyancy control, and even then must be searching for macro life or photographing macro life and hover for no more than 1-3 minutes. Obviously I'm dreaming.

No exceptions for photographers. Many can't be bothered to not touch with hands or fins for that perfect shot.

A new diver who is taught to respect touching rule does a lot less damage than an experienced diver with a camera.

 

[Kharon]

No exceptions for photographers. Many can't be bothered to not touch with hands or fins for that perfect shot.

A new diver who is taught to respect touching rule does a lot less damage than an experienced diver with a camera.

Darn straight. I should have included a minimum distance for someone with perfect buoyancy and trim and situational awareness even with a camera.. I guess I (mistakenly) assumed that anyone that could hover in any position that a trumpet fish can would never touch anything.

I have been horrified at some of the things I've seen done by documentary videographers. Guess they think that anything they do is OK because they are educating the unclean masses. Wrong AH. Don't plant your tripod solidly on top of that coral, and all the other atrocities I've seen watching Nat Geo and other shows.

And I have to admit to not being perfect, though I can mimic a trumpet fish in hovering. I always I keep 10' off the reef or any surface while I'm diving. But when diving up here (cold, low vis, lots of neoprene, lots of lead) I have touched bottom more than I like to admit - but everytime because of losing control of buoyancy, with too much task loading, and improper weighting. My bad. Never in warm, clear water, diving with no neoprene - just bioprene.

 

[Kharon]

Frog kick is an amazing tool
I started working hard on my frog kick after I followed someone through a swimthrough for the first time. Even when contact isn't made, the flutter kicks reverberates much further than most people realize.

I flutter kick unless backing up, but very, very limited. You could call it a modified flutter. I almost always only use my ankles to move the fins with almost no leg involvement. A real flutter to move distance. Oh, and I'm not penetration certified, hate the idea of no straight route to the surface (someone tried to drown me when I was mid-teens), and see no point in swim throughs - even bubbles disrupt the ceiling.

And Astran, yep you go to ==> Ignore.

 

[Streydog]

If you always keep at least 10' from any surface, how do you surface?

Has anyone else observed that many of the people that complain about other peoples diving have no idea the damage their own fins are causing?

 

[The Chairman]

Today's diver is better attuned to protecting the reef. We didn't know what we had, and now it's gone. Well, mostly gone.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

Go to the most frequented reefs in the Keys to see how badly they are beaten down by divers.

Many years ago, I was on a Scubaboard organized night dive to observe the coral spawn. Some guy brought a rebreather for this 20fsw reef dive and laid down on the reef to get a shot of the coral spawn. I’ll never understand how someone can take that many dive classes and still be so ignorant.

The irony of divers that will kill coral to get pictures of it attempting to renew itself is amazing.

I’ll get flamed for this, but the other group are people that lobster. Can’t count how many times I’ve seen lobster divers kicking over sea fans with their fins trying to get lobster. I refuse to go out on boats that have lobster divers on board.

Some people just can’t experience nature without trying to kill it, whether accidental or intentional.

We need a Red Flag law for crappy divers so these idiots can be reported and have their dive gear confiscated.

 

[ReefHound]

Ah, thanks for the primary literature. I can track the details down.

"Taking the mean values from both the shore and boat dives, kicking and touching the reef substrate with fins was by far the most common form of contact(81.4%), followed by touching and holding with hands(10.1%). Most contacts (79.8%) caused minor damage(touch or scrape), almost half (49.0%) resulted in there-suspension of sediment, and a small proportion(4.1%) caused major damage, i.e. caused breakage. Fin kicks accounted for the greatest proportion of each type of contact: 95.2% (n¼138) of major damage,78.5% (n¼2228) of minor damage, and 90.8%(n¼1581) of re-suspended sediment. Divers holding onto the substrate with their hands and resting against the substrate with their knees were the next most problematic actions, followed by loose, dangling equipment (gauges and alternative air sources ‘octo-puses’) which brushed against and knocked into the reef."

Since we can't wear gloves to prevent touching the reef, maybe they need to ban fins and booties? Make divers dive barefoot.

 

[uncfnp]

I thought I remembered sometime in the past reading a rule on distance. Took a few clicks until I could find a Cozumel link that still has it...

 

[ReefHound]

If they ever tried to enforce a 10' rule I would simply dive elsewhere. You can take that to the bank.

 

[MMM]

If they ever tried to enforce a 10' rule I would simply dive elsewhere. You can take that to the bank.

IME, that is a general rule for divers with crap buoyancy control. DMs will give you a lot more latitude if you show you have some.