I wanted to share a piece I posted much earlier today on my new website/blog. I hope you enjoy and please feel free to share any insights, ask questions or poke me 
, just don't expect a reaction. 
Oh and I decided to share this in the Basic discussion since it is about the Number One Rule we all hear about. Caveat: I actually think the number one rule should be to never run out of gas.
The Number One Rule In Scuba Diving: No Touching!
JANUARY 10, 2018 TURK VANGEL DIVE
Divers touching an octopus. (Image Credit: David Clow)
We have all heard that the number one rule in scuba diving is to never hold your breath. I know that to be a lie or at the very best a half truth but I will save that for another article. The number one rule should be to not touch what we find or see once we descend below the surface. No touching should become our mantra and I will tell you why.
Divers are a unique breed to say the least. There are an estimated 7.6 billion people on Earth and of that only 11 million are scuba divers. That is a measly .14% that have decided to explore the 71% of our planet that is underwater. This leads us to become ambassadors for the lakes and oceans and guardians of all that live there or call it their final resting place.
What inspired me to write this were videos I had been watching over the past few days and the atrocious behavior I saw in them. The first behavior I saw were divers poking at animals to get them to move for, what I can only assume, was to get a better and more “exciting” video. I will never understand why this is seen as acceptable to some people. If you are making a dive video to show your family and friends what life is like underwater, why would you create a false image of this beautiful environment? As divers we all know that sometimes that one thing we are hoping to see just isn’t there. It may be there but hiding from predators and here you come with a poker, unhappy with its position or lack of movement, so you poke and prod to get it to react. This can lead to that same animal getting eaten as you have just made it leave its home or hiding place.
I have seen divers feeding ocean animals such as sharks and moray eels. I know there is a large debate about the feeding shark dives and they impact they have on animals as well as potential impact on human lives so I will leave that debate for another time. However we must look at how we interact with life in the water and why one would do such a thing.
What makes a diver do these things. Many divers love the life we find beneath the waves and diving is a passion for them yet for some, diving is a badge of honor. There is a big difference between being loving diving and loving being a diver! Some seem to dive just to post pictures of themselves in dive gear on their social media pages. The “look at me” mentality that runs rampant in the this day and age leads to some taking the courses just for those moments of perceived greatness that they can then post and allow others to ooh and ah at what it is they are doing. A similar thing can be seen in tech diving where the gear is different and at times, multiple tanks are used for deeper and more difficult dives. A small number of those taking tech courses do so just to enter a cave for the first time or to do a deep dive with a twinset and multiple slung stage bottles.
Tech Dive (Credit: Paul from Flickr)
This same mentality can apply to wreck diving where people have little care for the history of the wreck and the preservation of it. I saw a video on YouTube yesterday where three divers are diving the Amagisan Maru in Chuuk Lagoon where the stern rests at 60 meters/200 feet. A dive to 60 meters takes training, practice, skill and planning; yet while watching these people dive, I notice multiple times where they pick up objects. Not only do they pick them up but then they proceed to hold onto them as they continue to dive and place them in a different spot than they were in previously. Some people may not see an issue with this however if you are a paid guide in Chuuk and you have a group looking to take pictures of a specific item which you say you know how to locate and upon descent you find the object isn’t there anymore, how do you think your group would feel about that? Not to mention the disruption of a piece of history.
The touching or manipulation of animals underwater as well the blatant destruction of history by moving or removing items from a wreck have more of an impact than you may realize. We, as divers, also become ambassadors to what lies beneath the water. We share the images , videos and our stories with friends and loved and often ask them to join us in our adventures. To bear witness to the history and life under the surface of what covers the majority of our planet is a gift we should never take for granted as we are the ocean defenders. The number one rule of scuba diving is to never hold your breath. However in order to ensure there is life and history for future generations to see, the rule should be No Touching!
This article can be found here: Scuba With Turk - Scuba Training, Travel and Ocean Conservation
, just don't expect a reaction. Oh and I decided to share this in the Basic discussion since it is about the Number One Rule we all hear about. Caveat: I actually think the number one rule should be to never run out of gas.
The Number One Rule In Scuba Diving: No Touching!
JANUARY 10, 2018 TURK VANGEL DIVE
Divers touching an octopus. (Image Credit: David Clow)
We have all heard that the number one rule in scuba diving is to never hold your breath. I know that to be a lie or at the very best a half truth but I will save that for another article. The number one rule should be to not touch what we find or see once we descend below the surface. No touching should become our mantra and I will tell you why.
Divers are a unique breed to say the least. There are an estimated 7.6 billion people on Earth and of that only 11 million are scuba divers. That is a measly .14% that have decided to explore the 71% of our planet that is underwater. This leads us to become ambassadors for the lakes and oceans and guardians of all that live there or call it their final resting place.
What inspired me to write this were videos I had been watching over the past few days and the atrocious behavior I saw in them. The first behavior I saw were divers poking at animals to get them to move for, what I can only assume, was to get a better and more “exciting” video. I will never understand why this is seen as acceptable to some people. If you are making a dive video to show your family and friends what life is like underwater, why would you create a false image of this beautiful environment? As divers we all know that sometimes that one thing we are hoping to see just isn’t there. It may be there but hiding from predators and here you come with a poker, unhappy with its position or lack of movement, so you poke and prod to get it to react. This can lead to that same animal getting eaten as you have just made it leave its home or hiding place.
I have seen divers feeding ocean animals such as sharks and moray eels. I know there is a large debate about the feeding shark dives and they impact they have on animals as well as potential impact on human lives so I will leave that debate for another time. However we must look at how we interact with life in the water and why one would do such a thing.
What makes a diver do these things. Many divers love the life we find beneath the waves and diving is a passion for them yet for some, diving is a badge of honor. There is a big difference between being loving diving and loving being a diver! Some seem to dive just to post pictures of themselves in dive gear on their social media pages. The “look at me” mentality that runs rampant in the this day and age leads to some taking the courses just for those moments of perceived greatness that they can then post and allow others to ooh and ah at what it is they are doing. A similar thing can be seen in tech diving where the gear is different and at times, multiple tanks are used for deeper and more difficult dives. A small number of those taking tech courses do so just to enter a cave for the first time or to do a deep dive with a twinset and multiple slung stage bottles.
Tech Dive (Credit: Paul from Flickr)
This same mentality can apply to wreck diving where people have little care for the history of the wreck and the preservation of it. I saw a video on YouTube yesterday where three divers are diving the Amagisan Maru in Chuuk Lagoon where the stern rests at 60 meters/200 feet. A dive to 60 meters takes training, practice, skill and planning; yet while watching these people dive, I notice multiple times where they pick up objects. Not only do they pick them up but then they proceed to hold onto them as they continue to dive and place them in a different spot than they were in previously. Some people may not see an issue with this however if you are a paid guide in Chuuk and you have a group looking to take pictures of a specific item which you say you know how to locate and upon descent you find the object isn’t there anymore, how do you think your group would feel about that? Not to mention the disruption of a piece of history.
The touching or manipulation of animals underwater as well the blatant destruction of history by moving or removing items from a wreck have more of an impact than you may realize. We, as divers, also become ambassadors to what lies beneath the water. We share the images , videos and our stories with friends and loved and often ask them to join us in our adventures. To bear witness to the history and life under the surface of what covers the majority of our planet is a gift we should never take for granted as we are the ocean defenders. The number one rule of scuba diving is to never hold your breath. However in order to ensure there is life and history for future generations to see, the rule should be No Touching!
This article can be found here: Scuba With Turk - Scuba Training, Travel and Ocean Conservation
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