Brand new dive site damaged by fishing trawler

[lord khram]

LK, can you explain why organic waste, produced by a specific dive vessel, should not be thrown overboard?

Because coral reefs littered with chicken bones are less attractive to dive than ones without, also bones take a long time to degrade in the water, many months even years, chicken bones are not natural to the marine environment. What effect can this have on the marine environment, good or bad, please let me know. And with regard to flies as mentioned in one post, what is wrong in having a bin with a close fitting lid to put food waste in and taking it back to shore daily and disposing of it correctly.
I seem to remember from my Padi training materials and certainly from my BSAC training that we are not supposed to put anything in the water, feed or interfere with marine creatures, or maybe I remember incorectly.
We cannot complain about other people who use the sea for enjoyment, or to make a living, damaging the sea life when so many dive boats do not behave correctly. Strikes me as there are a lot of double standards evident in this thread.

 

[lord khram]

Also what about the practice of dropping boat anchors into coral reefs, yes diveboats!! That I have so frequently witnessed in Pattaya. Suppose that is acceptable also if you are making money from the situation.

 

[limbo]

Also what about the practice of dropping boat anchors into coral reefs, yes diveboats!! That I have so frequently witnessed in Pattaya. Suppose that is acceptable also if you are making money from the situation.

Unfortunately that is not excluded to PTY. Seems to happen all over the region. Only education can help.

Regarding the organic waste, you may have a point. The fly remark can indeed easily dealt with, as any house hold in Thailand will show or as suggested by you, however, I wonder what impact organic waste may or can have on the environment. Maybe I'm not educated well enough on this subject.

 

[miketsp]

LK, can you explain why organic waste, produced by a specific dive vessel, should not be thrown overboard?

I must admit that I never used to think twice about dumping organic waste over the side (apple cores, orange peel, banana skins etc) however I was picked up on this on one dive trip by a DM.
He pointed out that organic waste, unless you can be sure that it will be fully eaten by fauna, will stimulate algae growth and this is detrimental to coral formations.

So nowadays I only dump organic waste if I'm sure we're not above a reef formation.

For associated reading see:
http://www.bilyap.com.tr/magazin/mag1/enviro1S1E.php3

 

[limbo]

Thanks for that miketsp.

Your link is interesting but it is not really clear if the algae eating fish would have been capable of dealing with the increase of algae, because the whole fish population on that reef has been caught by the local population, which causes an unbalanced situation, one way or the other. The dismise of the reef in question from the article mentioned was because of lack of algae eating fish, not necessarily by dumping organic waste on the reef.

Interesting read though and it was unknown to me that organic waste dumped on a reef produced algae, which in turn is detrimental to reef growth.

 

[Bowmouth]

In a perfect world nobody would throw waste over the side. And not empty the black water tank while cruising or when divers are under water. Spilled engine oil and fuel would not be pumped out of the boat into the sea. And cigarette butts would not be carelessly tossed over the side. Plastic bags and other trash would not be floating around. Divers would not break coral, or stand on it, or sit on it and take pictures. And boat crew would not throw anchors on the reef.

But we are not living in a perfect world. And we are all far less than perfect beings. We can try to do our best not to make a mess of our world but overall we're not doing a very good job. Take a good look at yourself and ask yourself: "What have I done today to make this world a little bit better"?

 

[lord khram]

I completely agree Bowmouth. but as divers I find it strange when people make posts saying that throwing food waste in the water is acceptable. As we all enjoy the marine world, should we not lead by example and not throw anything overboard. As I have said before accidents happen, and they are just that, unintended unfortunate incidents that nobody wants, but as you quite rightly say life is far from perfect.
But throwing anything into the sea or on land is not accidental, and in my mind is not acceptable, I dont want to look at other peoples food waste when I walk down the street and certainly not when I go diving, when you eat at home do you throw your waste into the street?
And as for the comment about throwing stuff away from the reef is acceptable, How can a 'diver' be so stupid?? Have you not heard of tides and sea currents?
We should not intentionally interfere with the marine ecosystem at all, in some cases after an accident human interference may be necessary, but lets leave that to the experts and concentrate on the diving.

 

[limbo]

This must be the first time that LK and Bowmouth are in agreement about something. What is this world coming to?

 

[Bowmouth]

This must be the first time that LK and Bowmouth are in agreement about something. What is this world coming to?

A better place?

 

[Bowmouth]

We should not intentionally interfere with the marine ecosystem at all....

Every single time we strap a tank on our back and blow some bubbles we do make an impact on the marine environment. Even the most careful diver will leave his/her mark on the reef and its inhabitants. Our fins may move some sediment from the bottom on live coral (and cause the coral stress to get rid of it), our bubbles may hit and dislodge some creatures that were maybe feeding, mating or laying eggs and have an impact on their personal survival and "daily routine", our breathing-noise may scare fish away from their shelter and make them more vulnerable to predators etc. etc.

Of-course we don't intentionally want to hurt the marine-environment but we do leave our mark.

Humans are very good at leaving their marks everywhere on this planet, much better than any other creature that is living on this blue-ball with us.
I don't think it's something we should be proud of but I guess it's human nature. And that, is hard to change...