Controversial DEMA booth & advertising photos

[Steve_C]

I don't understand. Spearing fish to eat is a more efficient use of the resource than buying fish at a restaurant or grocery store.

Its not the spearing. It is the disregard for the reef. No different from dropping anchors into the coral.

 

[Searcaigh]

In response to those people at DEMA who were offended by the photographs that were displayed at the Riffe International booth.

We apologize for the poor choice of underwater photos of divers on and near the Coral reefs. This was a one-time photo shoot posed to display our new camo wetsuit.
Most divers do not hunt in the Coral reef because of the damage to the reef and harm to the diver.

Riffe International feels very strongly on preserving our natural resources especially the beautiful coral reefs.
These types of photos will not be used in any future events.

Please accept our sincere apologies.

Jay Riffe -president
Riffe International

I hope that in future you make sure you discuss the photo shoot before it is done and discuss with the photographer and model a more pro-environmental way of presenting your products.

 

[tstormdiver]

OK,.. my $.02. Although some reef damage can occur from these free divers laying on the reef to make their shots, even for pictures, I would bet it is much less damage than is caused by scuba divers with poor buoyancy skills, carelessness or having equipment dangling & catching on everything.

 

[danvolker]

While I agree that some spearos should consider less contact with the reef, having seen this, with the spearo at neutral or 2 pound negative buoyancy, and typically careful to be "quiet" and to avoid damaging anything....I would point out that if anyone here has ever watched a loggerhead turtle on a reef, foraging....this is like a good sized bulldozer, crashing over and through sponges and corals, leaving a wake of destruction behind them.
I don't think anyone here has ever heard of a spearo that has done anything close to the damage of a turtle....If there is a point to this, it is that if on a small scale, the ecosystem is not threatened by this.... Anchoring, by fisherman, is more of an exponential opposite--in the major damage each anchor can cause--and the huge volume of fishermen that have done this daily in many places.


So......You have a big sewage pipe spewing thousands of gallons of raw untreated sewage on your yard....and a neighbor with a dog wanders up to your yard, and lets their dog take a dump on it.....and you yell at the neighbor and dog, for not being sensitive to your attempts at having a nice lawn....Somehow you missed the bigger picture of what is happening..and of who is really hurting your lawn..

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Spearfishing is an extremely ecologically friendly means to harvest fish. Generally no bait, very little by-catch, no unintended release mortality, no loss of lead, fishing lines, lost hooks in fish etc.

Also, scuba divers need to realize that freedivers do NOT have a means to control their buoyancy. Once their chest and suit is crushed by the pressure, they become negative. Even if they were to wear zero lead, the chest compression alone is enough to make them sink. So it is a little different than scuba diving.

As a freediver approaches the bottom, they are going to support themselves or make contact, if they desire to minimize their level of exertion (which is critical to freediving). Almost always you can find a dead spot, to place a finger or a hand and allow yourself to sit motionless on the bottom when trying to attract a fish. I think many scuba divers strive for zero contact with the bottom (although contact probably occurs more than they realize).

On the other hand, I think deliberately laying on hard coral and then photographing it and using it as a promotional image, was, as acknowledged, a bad idea. It sends the wrong message. I have much less heart burn over contact with soft corals and sponges which get whipped around by surge and into each other or contact with artificial structures like wrecks etc.

And as Dan V. has mentioned, anyone who has watched turtles crawl all over a reef (and munching on sponges etc.) will realize that the gentle touch of a freediver is probably less significant.

 

[letterboy]

In response to those people at DEMA who were offended by the photographs that were displayed at the Riffe International booth.

We apologize for the poor choice of underwater photos of divers on and near the Coral reefs. This was a one-time photo shoot posed to display our new camo wetsuit.
Most divers do not hunt in the Coral reef because of the damage to the reef and harm to the diver.

Riffe International feels very strongly on preserving our natural resources especially the beautiful coral reefs.
These types of photos will not be used in any future events.

Please accept our sincere apologies.

Jay Riffe -president
Riffe International

If only more business "owners" took an active role like this I am sure it would head off PLENTY of scandals.

Were the images a poor choice, probably in some eyes.

Personally I saw them as, hey that's cool look at what he is doing with that spear gun. But I am not as fanatical about somethings as others are.

I have even been known to touch a fish while under water. Not a puffer fish, because that's wrong. I learned that from the troll thread . . .