Collecting during dives

[Kingpatzer]

Please explain to me the difference between someone traveling to the keys to dive or traveling to Orlando to visit Disney World? If we travel anywhere does it not have an environmental footprint?

Everything we do has an environmental impact. It just strikes me as odd that while our particular activity is most enjoyable when we have a healthy environment in which to engage there are those who have very little concern for the conservation of that same environment.

That is quite different from a trip to Disney World, where there is nothing natural about the surroundings at all.

 

[TMHeimer]

Follow the local laws. If it's illegal to take things, don't. If it's legal, take what you want. I collect shells. Some places it's legal to collect live ones, others it's illegal. In Florida, the laws on collecting live shells vary by county. Be careful. I collect lots of fossils. In Florida you need a permit to collect fossils (there are some exceptions, most obvious is shark teeth do not require a permit). I pick up all the lead I find.

Walter, I didn't know you were a fellow collector. In Fla. the state law is you need a fishing license and have a limit on most species. Queen Conch are strictly prohibited. Lee County (Sanibel/Captiva) all live ones are illegal except stuff like Coquinas. The problem in Fla. seems to be the charter boats, which I've found online prohibit or discourage it. Have you heard of any places (countries and dive ops together) in the Carib./Central America that permit it?

 

[Dr Neil]

There is a difference between collecting and stripping wrecks. Perhaps it's human nature to acquire souvenirs and memorabilia, but removing large chunks of wrecks for profit is abhorrent.

Marine salvage has been around a long time, but pillaging intentionally sunk man-made structures is out-right vandalism.

 

[pedo]

Some things are obvious: you don't pry things off a wreck to take home with you.

Some things are not. Or at least are not to me. And so I ask:

What's the consensus opinion on collecting things like shells during a dive. Obviously, I'm not talking about shells that have anything living in them.

Haha, I guess those Doria divers will have to return that all that stuff in their garages. Hey, maybe if they take a little more she'll float! Aren't a hammer and crow bar standard equipment?

 

[atedeschi]

Hammer punch chisel and crowbar. Most items recovered would be lost or ruined as these ships collapse.

 

[BioLogic]

Why take stuff that's alive or covered with things that are alive (invertebrates count in my book) and kill it all so you can set it on a mantle to collect dust? Why remove it from a place where you obviously found it interesting and attractive, and other divers might do so in the future? I'm not saying there's never a good answer to that, but that should be part of the equation of deciding to take, not just 'I want it'.

All I've ever taken is distracting trash (shiny, eye-catching beer cans are popular) and all the lost fishing line I can find.

 

[Herk_Man]

Never mind.

 

[crd_kats]

Taking something is often a very selfish act... I want it, no one else needs to see it.

I'm one of the take pictures (and trash) crowd. Even the shells with nothing living in them often have encrusting life forms on the outside. I don't know how many times I've had to throw such items back in the water because the diver did not recognize there were living things on them (or in bottles or cans).

Even though I stopped hunting in 1975, I do not apply this to fish or invertebrates that are legally taken for food. I have no problem with that if the law is followed, although with some species that are rare and still unprotected I feel no take should be followed.

Octopus emerging from bottle taken during Avalon Harbor Clean-Up

You know, these pictures are very cool, but I can't help thinking whomever collected the bottle and knew there was an octopus in it should have put it in a bucket of seawater. As we emerge from the ocean, having just experienced the bliss of almost weightlessness then walking out of the surf and onto the beach or climbing back up that boat ladder, we always think of the weight of the gear. For a creature that's never experienced gravity, it has to be tough.... 3rd from last picture.

 

[seaducer]

That is quite different from a trip to Disney World, where there is nothing natural about the surroundings at all.

WHAT?!? You mean those kids in Its a Small World aren't like, real kids? Never heard anything so rediculous...

 

[elmer fudd]

I'll take what I plan on eating, (or sometimes give to other people to eat if they request it), but other than that I really don't have much interest in retrieving stuff from the sea floor. I've done a few bottle dives before and afterward I'm always left looking at a batch of old bottles and thinking, "what the hell am I going to do with this junk?"

Now, if I found a chest full of gold or a plane loaded with bales of contraband, then I might change my mind. Likewise, if I saw a serious hazard and had the opportunity to remove it I would try to do so.

But, bottles or old toilets? The marine life doesn't have a problem with those things. In fact they often make their homes in them, so I have trouble understanding how anyone is improving the environment by removing them.