Can you help save marine life?!

[danvolker]

danvolker,
That is incredible. I don't think I've even seen Bubblemakers with that bad of a kicking technique. And even the ones that I have seen having trouble, learned how to kick properly with just a minute or two of instruction. I wonder why he even bothered to don his fins. They were not doing him a bit of good. Who would certify that guy? Were you able to convince him to try learning at least one functional kicking style?

He had issues....in order to make sure he would get an instructor to help him, I told him a big part of his issue was that his gear was impossibly throwing off his trim, and that he would never be as comfortable as he should be, and that his feet would always be dragging...he agreed he would have a shop in Jupiter help him.
Someone this bad though, is unlikely to EVER be a good diver. The current system is set up to pass everyone.


Even as bad as this guy is, I have to agree with TmHeimer, that the "REAL DAMAGE" being done has nothing to do with divers...the REAL DAMAGE is fertilizer runnoff from lawns or agricultural....and the insane stupidity of Beach Re-nourishment--which never, ever fixes the erosional problems of a beach, and is constantly being done over-again at Florida Beaches --the by-product being a huge silt storm covering the reefs, and destroying the ecosystem. What is sad here, is there is a much better alternative, but all the money running through the Army Corp of Engineers, and Coastal Engineers, has pretty much kept this a sand dredging solution to keep THEM in the money.
The real solution here is the Holmberg Stabilizer Solution. A fraction of the cost, and sand accretes naturally at about 2 feet per year from inception on!
See this http://saveflaglersbeach.com/projects-by-holmberg-technologies/before-after-photos/

 

[Scubysarah]

While I agree with all said so far I think it must be put in perspective. I think the best thing a diver or anyone can do is to get involved with worldwide movements that attack the diminishing fish/sharks, etc. problems. Also the destruction of bottom life by bottom trawling. Diver impact on the overall situation, IMO, is very minimal compared to something like global warming that bleaches coral. Though I can see that many divers visiting (and training in) the same areas over and over can do a lot of local damage. Though we have no such situations like that here, it is probably a big problem in the tropics. It's all about buoyancy.

Yes I agree! I have looked into global warming and the affects that it is having - it is basically destroying the eco systems. However i hope that through raising awareness to divers that other divers may be on board and wanting to help as well which in turn could help the bigger picture. I hope one day more will be done to help conservation!

---------- Post Merged at 09:18 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 09:15 PM ----------

Even as bad as this guy is, I have to agree with TmHeimer, that the "REAL DAMAGE" being done has nothing to do with divers...the REAL DAMAGE is fertilizer runnoff from lawns or agricultural....and the insane stupidity of Beach Re-nourishment--which never, ever fixes the erosional problems of a beach, and is constantly being done over-again at Florida Beaches --the by-product being a huge silt storm covering the reefs, and destroying the ecosystem. What is sad here, is there is a much better alternative, but all the money running through the Army Corp of Engineers, and Coastal Engineers, has pretty much kept this a sand dredging solution to keep THEM in the money.
The real solution here is the Holmberg Stabilizer Solution. A fraction of the cost, and sand accretes naturally at about 2 feet per year from inception on!
See this http://saveflaglersbeach.com/projects-by-holmberg-technologies/before-after-photos/

The pictures are great on the website- thank you. Just shows the real impact that soft engineering can have, but it needs to be kept maintained, which again costs money! perhaps more money needs to be put into systems to help this. Its great to get perspectives from you who is on the other side of the world to me! Emphasises that this really is a worldwide problem, that must be sorted!

 

[DivemasterDennis]

just want to note that I posted my input on the thread Scubysarah put up on ukdivers.com.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Scubysarah]

yes thank you much appreciated! I am trying to get to a wider audience by going to different forums

 

[danvolker]

The pictures are great on the website- thank you. Just shows the real impact that soft engineering can have, but it needs to be kept maintained, which again costs money! perhaps more money needs to be put into systems to help this. Its great to get perspectives from you who is on the other side of the world to me! Emphasises that this really is a worldwide problem, that must be sorted!

Hi Sarah,
In perspective, with beach re-noursishment they charge millions of dollars to dredge and then dump sand in the beach and surf areas of erosional beaches. With the Holberg solution, it costs a fraction to put the stabilizers in by the inlet on each side, and then the system is self sustaining from then on...needing no more funding.....costal engineers don''t like losing millions of dollars every year by fixing ther problem....so they have been using dredging instead.

 

[CT-Rich]

You might enjoy using this for that [video=youtube_share;UVpD08Ko2DY]http://youtu.be/UVpD08Ko2DY?hd=1[/video]

I would stress that it is terrible divers that do the damage....
If you are discussing divers with good skills, there should be no damage at all.

Why is this guy wearing fins? Wouldn't it be easier for him to just walk in his booties on the bottom?

As to Sarah's original point. Divers have a minimal impact on marine life, with a few exceptions. divers can damage slow growing corals and can harass marine animals causing stress, but generally most are simply passing tourists.

A single boat anchor can cause much more disruption to the marine environment than this clod-hopper ever will. The advantage of diving is that you actually can see the impact on the marine life. Unlike a line fisherman, spearfishing allows the hunter to select his one at a time instead of randomly seeing what latches onto the hook.

Divers, like hunters and hikers can be made into advocates. Practices like lawn fertilizers, road run off, careless boaters, wetlands degredation are much more critical areas than poor boyancy control. I would suggest that you look to include way for divers to become advocates for marine wildlife. I am not sure what exactly your are looking to include but identifying best boating practices, clean-up dives, groups that advocate wetlands restoration, buffer zones along rivers (in CT they are trying to avoid new development within 100 ft of rivers to allow nature to filter out a lot of the potenetial pollutants) and ways that they can support the marine community would be movements dives could naturally ally themselves with, much the way hunters have become advocates for terrrestrial wildlife.

 

[TheMic]

That movie is almost a little to much to watch. That makes you want to swim over and add a couple puffs, and make him suspend mid water column at a minimum.

 

[RJP]

To make people more aware I am making a new mock up booklet which would go with your open water guide on why you must control buoyancy, be careful with equipment and fin kicking in order to prevent damage to the marine life.

That info is already covered in OW courses, no? Was in the course I took and the ones we teach here anyway.

Not a bad idea to emphasize it though.

Good luck!

Ray

 

[Scubysarah]

Sorry for the late reply, been busy with A levels!

Thank you for the good points - they are great for my research!

RJP - i have studied the manual and have seen that it does involve some information within the chapters, but damage is still being done so perhaps the emphasis could help. Thanks for the luck! Will need it

Sarah

 

[TMHeimer]

Hi Sarah,
In perspective, with beach re-noursishment they charge millions of dollars to dredge and then dump sand in the beach and surf areas of erosional beaches. With the Holberg solution, it costs a fraction to put the stabilizers in by the inlet on each side, and then the system is self sustaining from then on...needing no more funding.....costal engineers don''t like losing millions of dollars every year by fixing ther problem....so they have been using dredging instead.

A few years back we watched the sand dumping in Destin FL. Each ship load of dredged sand was taken a ways to be deposited on the beach to the tune of $64,000 (EACH load) so someone said. It went on for considerably longer than the whole 3 months we were there. How many teachers can be hired for that kind of money?