OP
Hi there, dear Scuba Board fellows. After numerous replies in our blog & podcast 'Coral Reef & Eco Diver Magazine' upon my initial post and discussion of a sceintific paper analyzing diver impact on coral reefs, please find following a mirror of my blog of today. For listening to the podcast, please click on the link in my signature - and while you are there, subsrcibe to our blog by e-mail or RSS.
One more word before you you read on: I have been trying to contact the ScubaBoard to ask for permission to reproduce some of your answers to my posting on my blog for discussion - but so far, I have received no answer. If you find a citation of yours, and would not like it to appear in my blog, please tell me and I willl remove it - but trust me, our blog & podcast policy is to never flame anybody and to remain always objective.
Wish you a good reading - or listening by accessing our podcast,
Cheers, Stephan
-----
Hi there, this is Stephan from Beautiful Oceans; you can find us and our blogs at (link removed for this posting).
In my last podcast I discussed an interesting scientific study by Barker and Roberts that described the impact divers have on coral reefs - especially in relation to underwater photography.
This time, I wanted to know what UW photographers themselves think about the results of this scientific study, which did not shed a very good light on UW photographers as a whole. So, here's is what I did: I posted the results of this scientific study into a well-known scuba diver forum, the Scuba board (link removed in post). I personally like this forum for its friendly people and the support you get for questions on various diving topics.
So I posted my blog entry into one of the photography sections and the response was quite interesting. At first, some divers reacted by saying the scientific study presented was deliberately inflammatory. well, it's not surprising that you may become offended when you learn through a scientific study that you might be part of a crowd that has been identified as damaging the reef.
I must admit that was just as surprised as divers in the scubaboard forum in respect to UW photographers causing supposedly 1.6 breaks every 10 minutes... after all, I am a photographer myself, so I wanted to know the story behind all this As forum members where asking for proof, I made a search to see if the original study would be openly available on the web, and I found a link to it ( I have the original but would not have been authorized to distribute it without the consent of the publisher) - so here it is, openly available to everyone and posted by the University of Tübingen, Germany (click here to download PDF).
Now, let me share with you some of the reactions to my last podcast entry I will now go on and read some snippets of posts to you if you dont mind:
Nigel Collingwood (link removed for this posting) commented:
It is not simply the fins or the statistical effect of fins re breaks it is who wears the fins - and is a consequence of poor diver training and on-going education to anyone carrying a U/W camera.
I certainly agree with Nigel on this one - its not the fins that brake coral, but the heart and mind animating them and when those are combined with poor diving skills, well, it can spell disaster . one has to adopt best eco diving practices to become a pro...
Nigel goes further by writing An instructor is only as good as his/her last student and that says everything about those who were observed and who their instructors were - the term pay-and-dive-instantly comes flooding to mind about leaders in scuba education, when we all know that mass classes with low 75% pass grades results in consequences of to the marine habitat. What about the other 25% a student doesnt know about? There is no high ground for any instructor or instruction association, when today, more especially coral reef diver impact should be amongst the very first issues of diver training/education, which it is not.
Now, how could I not agree with Nigel on this point? Personnally, I think it is important to learn how to not impact the coral reef before being thrown into the water and then damaging coral.
On another note, Jim posted on May 23d the following note
Really, I guess I am the exception that challenges the study. For reference I use a Nikonos V with twin Sb-105 strobes. You know what? I cause an average of ZERO coral breaks during a dive.
and he goes further..
There are photographers that are aware of their environment, and those that are not. I contend that the PROFESSIONALS are more aware and cause LESS damage.
Finally, I was on a dive a while back. I was kneeling in the sand (no where near coral, mind you) and my buddy was kneeling beside me, a few inches away. Some boob with a cheapo camera had to get his shot, and collided with both of us in order to get it.
Well, Jim, I thank you for this nice example and I agree there are photographers and photographers. And that brings me back to what Nigel mentioned a little earlier: Everything seems to be related to education. Education of important diving skills such as neutral buoyancy but also education in terms of the natural marine environment. In the end we only protect what we love, we only love what we understand, and we only understand what we have been taught. In this sentence you will find the reason behind the existence of our organization. Beautiful Oceans provides affordable, high quality crash courses in coral reef biology, written with the scuba diver and snorkeler in mind. And to close the circle, we donate 10% of our profits to projects of coral reef conservation throughout the Caribbean. I am sorry for these 15 seconds of self-promotion, I can get carried away sometimes
adsense
Here is what Reidman wrote on scubaboard in reponse to the scientific study pinpointing photographers as causing the most damage to the reef: "Well I take a lot of underwater pictures and I can safety say I have never broken anything off a reef. I am very careful where I rest and have lost a lot of shots because I wont damage a reef for a shot. One technique I use is to hang upside down so I can point the camera in a hole or between coral for a shot. You need to have your buoyancy set right to do this takes a little practice but works."
What I have seen is Newbie's stomping all over the reef as they cant stay buoyant, usually with 10 pounds too much weight. I watched in horror as 2 snorkelers broke the top off a entire section of reef because they were in too deep water and stood on the reef to play with each other. When I surfaced and confronted them I was given the FxxxOff. In our group we had 4 people taking serious picture and I did not see any of them break the reef. (...)
JR Scuba on www.scubaboard.com:
(...) I think as divers we should take this information and insure " We All " do our best to protect the reefs that the dive community enjoys to look at. Stephan, Thank you for this information and I'm sure everyone will do their best to help protect our reefs.
adsense
With these encouraging words, I would like to end this podcast for today enjoy your dive and snorkel trip, dive & snorkel carefully do not hesitate to leave your comments by clicking on the button under this blog entry at (link removed for this posting).
Two last pieces of information: You have now also the possibility to receive our weekly blog & podcast by e-mail and don't worry, there's no ads! To do so, have a look at the right hand side of our blog homepage.
Survey
Finally, if you love to take surveys: we are currently surveying our podcast listeners to learn more about you. It would be great if you could take a few minutes and take the Listener Survey at the end of this blog entry. Thank you very much for sharing your time with me today, I wish you a beautiful day - bye, bye ;-)
One more word before you you read on: I have been trying to contact the ScubaBoard to ask for permission to reproduce some of your answers to my posting on my blog for discussion - but so far, I have received no answer. If you find a citation of yours, and would not like it to appear in my blog, please tell me and I willl remove it - but trust me, our blog & podcast policy is to never flame anybody and to remain always objective.
Wish you a good reading - or listening by accessing our podcast,
Cheers, Stephan
-----
Hi there, this is Stephan from Beautiful Oceans; you can find us and our blogs at (link removed for this posting).
In my last podcast I discussed an interesting scientific study by Barker and Roberts that described the impact divers have on coral reefs - especially in relation to underwater photography.
This time, I wanted to know what UW photographers themselves think about the results of this scientific study, which did not shed a very good light on UW photographers as a whole. So, here's is what I did: I posted the results of this scientific study into a well-known scuba diver forum, the Scuba board (link removed in post). I personally like this forum for its friendly people and the support you get for questions on various diving topics.
So I posted my blog entry into one of the photography sections and the response was quite interesting. At first, some divers reacted by saying the scientific study presented was deliberately inflammatory. well, it's not surprising that you may become offended when you learn through a scientific study that you might be part of a crowd that has been identified as damaging the reef.
(picture visible in original blog posting - see signature)
Underwater photography - year 1902
Boutan's method of obtaining instantaneous photographs of fish. In "The Photography of Aquatic Animals in Their Natural Environment" by Jacob Reighard, (1907). Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. XXVII, pp. 41-68. (Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library.)
Underwater photography - year 1902
Boutan's method of obtaining instantaneous photographs of fish. In "The Photography of Aquatic Animals in Their Natural Environment" by Jacob Reighard, (1907). Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. XXVII, pp. 41-68. (Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library.)
I must admit that was just as surprised as divers in the scubaboard forum in respect to UW photographers causing supposedly 1.6 breaks every 10 minutes... after all, I am a photographer myself, so I wanted to know the story behind all this As forum members where asking for proof, I made a search to see if the original study would be openly available on the web, and I found a link to it ( I have the original but would not have been authorized to distribute it without the consent of the publisher) - so here it is, openly available to everyone and posted by the University of Tübingen, Germany (click here to download PDF).
Now, let me share with you some of the reactions to my last podcast entry I will now go on and read some snippets of posts to you if you dont mind:
Nigel Collingwood (link removed for this posting) commented:
It is not simply the fins or the statistical effect of fins re breaks it is who wears the fins - and is a consequence of poor diver training and on-going education to anyone carrying a U/W camera.
I certainly agree with Nigel on this one - its not the fins that brake coral, but the heart and mind animating them and when those are combined with poor diving skills, well, it can spell disaster . one has to adopt best eco diving practices to become a pro...
Nigel goes further by writing An instructor is only as good as his/her last student and that says everything about those who were observed and who their instructors were - the term pay-and-dive-instantly comes flooding to mind about leaders in scuba education, when we all know that mass classes with low 75% pass grades results in consequences of to the marine habitat. What about the other 25% a student doesnt know about? There is no high ground for any instructor or instruction association, when today, more especially coral reef diver impact should be amongst the very first issues of diver training/education, which it is not.
Now, how could I not agree with Nigel on this point? Personnally, I think it is important to learn how to not impact the coral reef before being thrown into the water and then damaging coral.
On another note, Jim posted on May 23d the following note
Really, I guess I am the exception that challenges the study. For reference I use a Nikonos V with twin Sb-105 strobes. You know what? I cause an average of ZERO coral breaks during a dive.
and he goes further..
There are photographers that are aware of their environment, and those that are not. I contend that the PROFESSIONALS are more aware and cause LESS damage.
Finally, I was on a dive a while back. I was kneeling in the sand (no where near coral, mind you) and my buddy was kneeling beside me, a few inches away. Some boob with a cheapo camera had to get his shot, and collided with both of us in order to get it.
Well, Jim, I thank you for this nice example and I agree there are photographers and photographers. And that brings me back to what Nigel mentioned a little earlier: Everything seems to be related to education. Education of important diving skills such as neutral buoyancy but also education in terms of the natural marine environment. In the end we only protect what we love, we only love what we understand, and we only understand what we have been taught. In this sentence you will find the reason behind the existence of our organization. Beautiful Oceans provides affordable, high quality crash courses in coral reef biology, written with the scuba diver and snorkeler in mind. And to close the circle, we donate 10% of our profits to projects of coral reef conservation throughout the Caribbean. I am sorry for these 15 seconds of self-promotion, I can get carried away sometimes
adsense
Here is what Reidman wrote on scubaboard in reponse to the scientific study pinpointing photographers as causing the most damage to the reef: "Well I take a lot of underwater pictures and I can safety say I have never broken anything off a reef. I am very careful where I rest and have lost a lot of shots because I wont damage a reef for a shot. One technique I use is to hang upside down so I can point the camera in a hole or between coral for a shot. You need to have your buoyancy set right to do this takes a little practice but works."
What I have seen is Newbie's stomping all over the reef as they cant stay buoyant, usually with 10 pounds too much weight. I watched in horror as 2 snorkelers broke the top off a entire section of reef because they were in too deep water and stood on the reef to play with each other. When I surfaced and confronted them I was given the FxxxOff. In our group we had 4 people taking serious picture and I did not see any of them break the reef. (...)
JR Scuba on www.scubaboard.com:
(...) I think as divers we should take this information and insure " We All " do our best to protect the reefs that the dive community enjoys to look at. Stephan, Thank you for this information and I'm sure everyone will do their best to help protect our reefs.
adsense
With these encouraging words, I would like to end this podcast for today enjoy your dive and snorkel trip, dive & snorkel carefully do not hesitate to leave your comments by clicking on the button under this blog entry at (link removed for this posting).
Two last pieces of information: You have now also the possibility to receive our weekly blog & podcast by e-mail and don't worry, there's no ads! To do so, have a look at the right hand side of our blog homepage.
Survey
Finally, if you love to take surveys: we are currently surveying our podcast listeners to learn more about you. It would be great if you could take a few minutes and take the Listener Survey at the end of this blog entry. Thank you very much for sharing your time with me today, I wish you a beautiful day - bye, bye ;-)
