8 brakes on a 50min dive caused by photographers???

[Doc]

You guys can argue as to whether he is talking about you or not. If not- then good for you.

For every skilled photographer, I have seen 30 who were absolutely unaware.

However, I disagree with this quote:

– and there is another technique you may want to adopt whenever possible:
3. Its doing shots from a position where you can lay down on the sandy bottom while taking care that your fins, knees, elbows or anything else is at least one meter away from any life coral reef cover.

Wow. Coral shouldn't be breathed upon, but all those critters in that sandy bottom (and I am being dead serious, here)... what about that?

A lot of good advice, and if the bad moves don't apply to your techniques, then go out and spread the gospel of buoyancy and care.

As a side note, I believe that Coral protectors should worry more about errosion and run off from seashore development. There's the grim reaper of the reef.

 

[alcina]

Crazy, man, crazy...be interesting to see what kind of divers they were, too. 353 in one location is hardly rigorous...

But - every one of us can probably do even better than we are...even if it is simply making sure to set an excellent example to the next guy in line.

 

[Larry C]

Just because a diver has quality "professional" photo equipment doesn't mean they are great photographers or great divers. Last year in Coz, our divemaster was praising my family for our diving skills-frankly, not that great-and he expressed that most of his customers come every 1-2 years, but every time is like their first dive. I think a lot of divers who really enjoy the sport and can afford to go to tropical locations only dive when they vacation and have poor bouyancy skills. Shooting pictures on top of that is a whole new thing. I know that my normally good bouyancy skills went out the window when I got a camera in my hand. It's quite a learning curve, and if you dive 3 times a year, you could be all over the coral before you get a handle on it.

 

[JRScuba]

Did anyone see this picture???


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYqCKodoOjQ&search=scuba diving giant stride



Sort of puts this thread in the proper perspective.:05:

 

[Larry C]

Wow! Where do I start? First, has the guy ever heard of bouyancy? He's not just a rototiller, he's jumping up and down on the bottom. I have mixed feelings about baiting, but no mixed feelings about his plastic bag. No doubt when empty he just discarded it in the ocean. Where are sharks when you really need them? Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, here comes the village idiot.

 

[RonFrank]

Hi, Stephan here,

* Photographers cause an average of 0.3 coral reef breaks every 10 minutes
* Specialist photographers cause on average 1.6 breaks every 10 minutes.

Hi Stephan,

Maybe I am not reading enough of the study (I skimmed it quickly, and will reread), but here is one quote:

"Divers using a camera contacted the reef significantly more frequently than non-camera users....., but there was no significant effect of whether or not a divers was a no-specialist or specialist photographer"

I did not see the numbers you list above, but it's a multipage article jam packed with numbers, so I could be missing something. In any case, it would seem that your statements don't seem to agree with the quote I pulled?

In any event, appreciate the post.

 

[RonFrank]

While we can all sit around and say it is not true, or it's inaccurate, or the sample group was not large enough, after reading this I believe the facts are the facts. Divers are damaging the reefs. Regardless of how unintentional, it is happening.

Granted IMO the area of study is biasied likely towards once a year divers whom may not have good buoyancy skills, and don't dive on a regular basis. However those may represent the majoirity of the divers out there.

There are a TON of divers in CO, for example, however VERY few want to actually dive here to improve skills. This is a major reason I do dive on a regular basis. I certainly want to be in the zero reef damage catagory, and I honestly don't think I've done even minor damage during my time on the reef. I basically stay off it. However I'm betting my bouyancy skills are a LOT better than the average once a year vacation diver.

I think this study is a real eye opener. We can sit here and deny...deny... but IMO that would be foolish. As active divers we need to set an example, and help those that maybe unintentionally making contact with the reef aware that they are doing so.

 

[Stephan]

Was this a regional study? I know I have dived with several groups of people from, let's just say, a country not on the American continent. Divers belonging to those groups seemed to have no regard for the safety and security of the coral nor the marine life (running into and breaking coral, trying to grab turtles to "ride" them, etc.). I also might add that this conduct appeared to be purposeful and not accidental.

Just my two cents worth.

----
Hi Jcsgt - The study has been conducted while observing 353 divers in Saint Lucia - although this is only one dive spot, the study, to be scientifically valid, has to take into account the 'representativeness' of the observed cluster. Statistical methods then extrapolate the findings to make them representative for a 'generic group of divers'. But you are right to say divers visiting Saint Lucia might not be representative for the entire diving community - I doubt there are alot of divers from Asia diving in Saint Lucia just to give one example... the study therefore might be more representative for divers commonly diving in the Caribbean. The cluster is big enough for this save bet. Cheers, Stephan

 

[Jcsgt]

----
Hi Jcsgt - The study has been conducted while observing 353 divers in Saint Lucia - although this is only one dive spot, the study, to be scientifically valid, has to take into account the 'representativeness' of the observed cluster. Statistical methods then extrapolate the findings to make them representative for a 'generic group of divers'. But you are right to say divers visiting Saint Lucia might not be representative for the entire diving community - I doubt there are alot of divers from Asia diving in Saint Lucia just to give one example... the study therefore might be more representative for divers commonly diving in the Caribbean. The cluster is big enough for this save bet. Cheers, Stephan

Thanks for clearing that up, Stephan!

It's not that I don't believe photographers (as well as other, careless divers) damage the reef, it's just that the stat's seemed a bit high. I've not seen anything that drastic while diving, but there are so many folks on SB with more experience and who have seen different activity.

My buddy and I make it a point, when it's been a few months between dives, to go to the pool and practice basic skills. In addition, since my buddy just got a camera for the first time, we hired a guide/instructor in Key Largo to not only show us the good critters to photo, but to fine tune our buoyancy skills. It's was so worth it!

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Did anyone see this picture???


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYqCKodoOjQ&search=scuba diving giant stride



Sort of puts this thread in the proper perspective.:05:

Holy crap... What a moron!