How to react to bad diver etiquette (coral poaching/destruction etc)

[diver0008]

I'd say something, if they were on the same boat, along the lines of "in case you don't know, look but don't touch". Or, "it's a museum, not a playground". I have found that many new divers are actually quite receptive to advice from those experienced. Some of course, just don't care, so they just get the evil eye.

 

[boulderjohn]

When people who perform these activities drift away from good practices, they do so because they stop respecting the environment, so all this educational purpose is lost.

I am going to make a good-natured quibble with your wording. I do not believe people stopped respecting the environment; I believe they never respected the environment.

I grew up in a very different world from what I see today, and I think things are much better now. When I was a child, my family would sometimes go to a favorite picnic area near a babbling brook, with plenty of nice picnic tables for everyone. Whenever we arrived, all those picnic tables would be piled with the débris from previous visitors. When we drove down the roads, there was litter everywhere. I think things are much better now than they used to be. Lots of people have changed their attitudes dramatically over those decades. The bad attitudes that shock us today were the norm when I was young.

But despite that change in general, lots of people have not changed their attitudes. I believe a lot of people are still raised in homes where trash is left on picnic tables or tossed out of car windows. Those people never had respect for the environment, so we cannot expect them to get it now.

About 45 years ago I was a very naive young adult on my first visit to the beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park, which we were visiting with my wife's mother. I was only a few years out of college, where we had celebrated the first Earth Day, and where I had this developed an absurd belief that I was part of a new generation "with a new explanation". I watched a small boy crouching down, trying to attract a chipmunk with bread crumbs while his father, a man not much older than I, watched with a broad smile on his face. What a beautiful scene! When the chipmunk got good and close, the young man whipped his arm out from behind his back and hurled a rock at him. "You almost got him that time!" his father said approvingly.

A little later we were at a lookout in an alpine meadow above timberline. There were signs all over the place warning people not to walk on the delicate tundra, and people were dutifully crowded onto the path. A young couple, again about my age, trudged right through the delicate wildflowers. My mother-in-law, never one to hold back, politely reminded them to stay on the path. The man looked at his companion and said, "For $10 I'd **** on her." They laughed and went on.

So, yes, things are much better now than they were, but there are still those whose motivations and attitudes are alien to the rest of us.

 

[TMHeimer]

I am going to make a good-natured quibble with your wording. I do not believe people stopped respecting the environment; I believe they never respected the environment.

I grew up in a very different world from what I see today, and I think things are much better now. When I was a child, my family would sometimes go to a favorite picnic area near a babbling brook, with plenty of nice picnic tables for everyone. Whenever we arrived, all those picnic tables would be piled with the débris from previous visitors. When we drove down the roads, there was litter everywhere. I think things are much better now than they used to be. Lots of people have changed their attitudes dramatically over those decades. The bad attitudes that shock us today were the norm when I was young.

But despite that change in general, lots of people have not changed their attitudes. I believe a lot of people are still raised in homes where trash is left on picnic tables or tossed out of car windows. Those people never had respect for the environment, so we cannot expect them to get it now.

About 45 years ago I was a very naive young adult on my first visit to the beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park, which we were visiting with my wife's mother. I was only a few years out of college, where we had celebrated the first Earth Day, and where I had this developed an absurd belief that I was part of a new generation "with a new explanation". I watched a small boy crouching down, trying to attract a chipmunk with bread crumbs while his father, a man not much older than I, watched with a broad smile on his face. What a beautiful scene! When the chipmunk got good and close, the young man whipped his arm out from behind his back and hurled a rock at him. "You almost got him that time!" his father said approvingly.

A little later we were at a lookout in an alpine meadow above timberline. There were signs all over the place warning people not to walk on the delicate tundra, and people were dutifully crowded onto the path. A young couple, again about my age, trudged right through the delicate wildflowers. My mother-in-law, never one to hold back, politely reminded them to stay on the path. The man looked at his companion and said, "For $10 I'd **** on her." They laughed and went on.

So, yes, things are much better now than they were, but there are still those whose motivations and attitudes are alien to the rest of us.

From what I've seen the last, what, 30+ years, I think you're right. Things ARE a lot better now. Or at least they seem to be. I can't recall the last time I saw anyone blatantly toss litter in full view of the public. As opposed to say, 1972 in downtown Manhattan.....
Nevertheless, we still seem to be heading toward the ever warming planet, weirder & weirder weather, etc. Maybe the "global" thing just isn't working that well, or maybe there are just too many people now?

 

[diver0008]

...maybe there are just too many people now?

Too many people for the planet? Clearly. Too many people for banks and unscrupulous profiteers? Never.

 

[ginti]

I am going to make a good-natured quibble with your wording. I do not believe people stopped respecting the environment; I believe they never respected the environment.

You said it better than me

I grew up in a very different world from what I see today, and I think things are much better now.

Agree 100%

 

[jonhall]

I was only a few years out of college, where we had celebrated the first Earth Day,

Things ARE a lot better now.

Don't remember anything about Earth Day from my youth - really not until the 80's, as I eventually took a position as a science teacher. It became much bigger once it went global. Early on my contribution to the environment was finding pop bottles along the road to take to the grocery store to get those 5 cent deposits and it was pretty much ingrained in me to not litter and touch things I shouldn't touch.

From science books I reviewed through the years, a definite change occurred with curriculum presented, as terms such as reduce, reuse, recycle, and conserve became popular. Groups that stressed the care of forests, waterways, endangered animals, etc. became more popular. In schools, we began to stress the importance of taking care of the environment. It hits me now how many parents must have enjoyed their kids coming home from school with projects related to bettering the environment - "DAD, you have already been in the shower for 5 minutes!"

Things are better now as we are more knowledgeable how our bad etiquette plays a part in affecting the world around us. The problem, just like there are the few (*use your favorite term here) who have bad etiquette when diving, there are still too many of those (*your term) throwing trash out of cars at stoplights, stop signs, along the road, and in parking lots as well as those who think they have to pick up a souvenir from an area when it is restricted to to so - such as at Yellowstone.

* my term would be idiots

 

[lowflyer]

I'm old enough to have seen the before and the after when it comes to trash everywhere. Two things stand out that changed the scenery: One was the efforts of Lady Bird Johnson and the The Highway Beautification Act of 1965. The other was the wider use of bottle deposits later on. I lived in MI when that state imposed bottle deposits. Almost overnight there was less trash along the highways. It was startling.

It is much better, but unfortunately, not everyone has gotten the message yet

 

[boulderjohn]

The other was the wider use of bottle deposits later on. I lived in MI when that state imposed bottle deposits. Almost overnight there was less trash along the highways. It was startling.

...and I lived in Colorado, where the bottle deposit and recycling efforts were adamantly opposed by the Coors company, which at that time made all their beer in one Colorado location. It took quite a while to overcome their anti-environment campaigns.

 

[TMHeimer]

We recycle our cans and bottles here in NS and it can add up to a nice piece of change. We used to live 25 miles from town in Northern Manitoba, where the recycling place was. You got no money for your cans/bottles, so most of the time all of ours went half a mile down the road to the dump. If Manitoba gave cash for them, it would've been worth the gas cost to bring them to town (even Canadian gas costs....).
When we condoed in Destin, FL, the closest recycling place was 10+ miles away in Ft. Walton Beach, and I don't think any refund. Cans/bottles to the condo dumpster.

johnhall-- What is the down side to a long shower? Too much soap?, water shortage?

 

[diver0008]

It is much better, but unfortunately, not everyone has gotten the message yet

Entire continents and massively populated countries have not gotten the message yet.