Can you help save marine life?!

[Scubysarah]

Hello,

I'm new to the forum, and I have been enjoying diving for 3 years now!

I am currently doing a project looking into the damage that divers have on the life in the oceans while diving.

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.

It would be really useful to get your views on the matter, and any experiences you may have had with seeing damage happen while on a dive.

Any help you give me could help save the marine life (I hope!)

Thank you!

Sarah

 

[danvolker]

Hello,

I'm new to the forum, and I have been enjoying diving for 3 years now!

I am currently doing a project looking into the damage that divers have on the life in the oceans while diving.

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.

It would be really useful to get your views on the matter, and any experiences you may have had with seeing damage happen while on a dive.

Any help you give me could help save the marine life (I hope!)

Thank you!

Sarah

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.

 

[tstormdiver]

The 3 main things are buoyancy control, situational awareness & general respect for the environment & the creatures within it.

1. Buoyancy control- I will not take any students to open water dives until they have a grasp of buoyancy control & can stay off the bottom. I can skim inches above a surface & never touch or disturb it. Divers who can not control their placement in the water column have no business in sensitive areas, let alone in open water. They are a threat to the environment & a potential threat to other divers.

2. situational awareness- Many divers, especially newer ones have no idea where their bodies or feet/ fins are. That the fins they are wearing typically extend a foot or better past their normal foot length. They have no clue that their up & down flutter kick causes their fin tips to slam down into the coral or the wash stirs up the sediment on the bottom & covers the coral. I couldn't tell you how many divers I've seen swim in a vertical attitude or a 45 degree angle, with fins pointed downward. Rototillers, I call them.

3. General respect for the environment & the animals. We are guests to the underwater world. We, by nature are land animals., we need to understand that the underwater world is the home of these creatures. How would you feel if a guest just comes into your home & starts treating like it is their own, making messes & not offering to help out or clean up after themselves. It is OK to observe the animals, but not OK to harass or interfere with their lives. Most of them are prey animals & a larger thing swimming up to them are likely perceived as a threat. Hitching a ride on a turtle may seem harmless, but what if that turtle is desperate to get to the surface to get some air? It may be exhausted, will it make it to the surface to survive?.... you may have just doomed it. I couldn't tell you all the underwater photographers I've seen laying on the coral, or even breaking or destroying coral,..... all just to get that shot. Live & let live, for Pete's sake!

 

[Scubysarah]

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.

Thank you very much! The video is excellent in portraying how peoples poor skills can impact on the oceans. Training needs to be done in order to prevent this!
Thanks again,
Sarah

---------- Post Merged at 09:17 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 09:14 PM ----------

The 3 main things are buoyancy control, situational awareness & general respect for the environment & the creatures within it.

1. Buoyancy control- I will not take any students to open water dives until they have a grasp of buoyancy control & can stay off the bottom. I can skim inches above a surface & never touch or disturb it. Divers who can not control their placement in the water column have no business in sensitive areas, let alone in open water. They are a threat to the environment & a potential threat to other divers.

2. situational awareness- Many divers, especially newer ones have no idea where their bodies or feet/ fins are. That the fins they are wearing typically extend a foot or better past their normal foot length. They have no clue that their up & down flutter kick causes their fin tips to slam down into the coral or the wash stirs up the sediment on the bottom & covers the coral. I couldn't tell you how many divers I've seen swim in a vertical attitude or a 45 degree angle, with fins pointed downward. Rototillers, I call them.

3. General respect for the environment & the animals. We are guests to the underwater world. We, by nature are land animals., we need to understand that the underwater world is the home of these creatures. How would you feel if a guest just comes into your home & starts treating like it is their own, making messes & not offering to help out or clean up after themselves. It is OK to observe the animals, but not OK to harass or interfere with their lives. Most of them are prey animals & a larger thing swimming up to them are likely perceived as a threat. Hitching a ride on a turtle may seem harmless, but what if that turtle is desperate to get to the surface to get some air? It may be exhausted, will it make it to the surface to survive?.... you may have just doomed it. I couldn't tell you all the underwater photographers I've seen laying on the coral, or even breaking or destroying coral,..... all just to get that shot. Live & let live, for Pete's sake!

Thank you very much for the feedback - I can tell that you are just as passionate as me about preventing damage. Hopefully we can all make a difference if we raise awareness. Thank you!

 

[danvolker]

Thank you very much! The video is excellent in portraying how peoples poor skills can impact on the oceans. Training needs to be done in order to prevent this!
Thanks again,
Sarah

I caught up with this guy after the dive, in the parking lot...he had been certified for over a year, and thought there was nothing alive on the bottom!!!! That was his excuse.
This guys demonstrates that the "modular approach" to training Open water students by "the major training agencies" is severely flawed in what can be forseeable result....that some will decide their OW cert is all they need, and will then dive from this point on, with severely defective buoyancy and trim, along with no awareness of much around them. A higher level approach, would have a much higher minimum standard before the first c-card could be issued, and students that exhibited a lack of skills like this one, would be failed until they could operate properly underwater, and exhibit awareness to what is going on around them.

 

[Scubysarah]

I caught up with this guy after the dive, in the parking lot...he had been certified for over a year, and thought there was nothing alive on the bottom!!!! That was his excuse.
This guys demonstrates that the "modular approach" to training Open water students by "the major training agencies" is severely flawed in what can be forseeable result....that some will decide their OW cert is all they need, and will then dive from this point on, with severely defective buoyancy and trim, along with no awareness of much around them. A higher level approach, would have a much higher minimum standard before the first c-card could be issued, and students that exhibited a lack of skills like this one, would be failed until they could operate properly underwater, and exhibit awareness to what is going on around them.

I couldn't agree more with you, and I wish instructors would be stricter in passing people on the practical side of the course. I will be trying to contact instructors and dive schools, as well as visiting some schools to see first hand the training that is currently in place. Thank you again for your feedback!

 

[TMHeimer]

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.

 

[xyrandomyx]

Woah. I thought my buoyancy skills were poor just after I'd got my OW certification, but that takes it to a whole new level. And, damage to marine life aside, how is diving like that even remotely comfortable? It looks incredibly tiring and awkward.

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.

 

[TMHeimer]

danvolker, I recall seeing that bicycle kick once in the pool. I would imagine his octo will need a good cleaning for suspended sand and silt. However, he amazingly remained relatively free of dive flag line entanglement.

 

[ScottUgly]

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?