Cozumel Gloves/Knife

[Christi]

Corals are fragile.
Kicking, touching, dragging your gear causes damage, buoyancy control is your key to healthy coral.
Photographers in particular, take pictures without causing damage.
Marine organisms are protected by law.
Fishing, feeding the fauna and taking souvenirs is against the law. Refrain from extracting or annoying the marine flora and fauna.
Help us prevent pollution.
Report fuel, oil, sewage and garbage spills to the National Park office.
Pressure your dive operator to instruct novice divers and divers without adequate buoyancy control, and to refuse service to destructive divers.
If you use gloves, do not grab the corals.
If you carry a knife, keep it in the sheath.
Use biodegradable sunblock products.

Those are not the marine park regulations. Here are the regulations word for word from the Marine Park Brochure that all dive ops have and some may even have them posted in the shop or boat.


It IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED:

*To stand on, or take hold of the coral reefs

*To fish for, to collect, to disturb or to keep any marine life organism found in the
Park (fishes, corals, shells, starfish, etc.)

*To carry spears, hooks, harpoons or explosives

*To carry gloves or knives (Dive Masters and Instructors may register these items for use with the Marine Park).

*To disturb or to remove fauna and flora from their refuge.

*To feed any fish or animals in the Marine Park

*To dispose of any kind of solid waste in the ocean.

*To dump fuel, grease, oil, or any other liquid substances into the ocean

*To use sun block or suntan oils which are not biodegradable.

Your dive guide is authorized to enforce these rules, and will, if necessary, interrupt, restrict or terminate a dive if tourists in your group are seen to disobey.

Your courtesy in carefully following these rules ensures that our precious reefs, living organisms in their own right, will enjoy long and healthy lives. For your support and help, the people of Cozumel thank you.


There is no reason for knives or gloves here as Mark said. We will allow gloves on the wreck only for the ascent line if we are using it due to the current, but that is the only exception.

 

[Coffeyman]

I certainly appreciate the responses. I did not mean that it was a "joke" but I do feel that the rule prohibiting gloves does nothing to prevent the unbalanced diver hitting something. Someone that uses gloves so they can grab the coral when they mess up obviously does not have the skills to be that close to it to begin with and will likely kick the coral 15 times and push off with their fins as well. This is just my .02 worth -I can understand the glove rule to prevent the crazies from grabbing stuff, prying stuff, climbing on things - but can you really stop those people?

I have seen 500 pictures of divers in Cozumel on this board and many have gloves - some do not. Others have a small BC knife (which I was taught to dive with). Again with the knife, if someone is going to be beligerent enough to stab or pry something then they are going to pocket their knife and do it anyways.

I guess my point is that it blows to punish responsible divers by taking away safety and comfort devices that they enjoy diving with because of a few sorry divers. Sort of like blaming the gun for the shooter I guess....

Thanks again for the responses!

 

[ggunn]

Those are not the marine park regulations. Here are the regulations word for word from the Marine Park Brochure that all dive ops have and some may even have them posted in the shop or boat.

[...]

No harpoons or explosives???? Dang it, I'm gonna have to go someplace else! ;^)

 

[doole]

Right - so you can't take gloves, knives or sun cream - which all is arguably a good idea - but you can build multiple cruise ship piers?

Stupid, stupid, stupid and more stupid not to mention hypocritical. Not a brain cell in their heads.

 

[Mako Mark]

I do feel that the rule prohibiting gloves does nothing to prevent the unbalanced diver hitting something. !

You are right coffeyman, it wont stop the uncontrolled diver from hitting the reef, but it will stop him/her from hitting it with impunity.

as far as the cold issue, if your feet are cold put a hat on is what my granny always used to tell me bless her soul.

A hood will keep you far warmer than gloves.

Personally I feel that whatever we can do to lesten the damage from the thundering crouds is good. Even if you feel less secure without a knife, there is no entanglement hazard in Coz, it is just not nessecary. If we dont make an effort to take care of a shared underwater natural heritage like a coral reef, then who will??

 

[ggunn]

Right - so you can't take gloves, knives or sun cream - which all is arguably a good idea - but you can build multiple cruise ship piers?

Stupid, stupid, stupid and more stupid not to mention hypocritical. Not a brain cell in their heads.

In their defense, I'm pretty sure that it's not the same folks who make the marine park rules who approve the building of cruise ship piers.

 

[Coffeyman]

You are right coffeyman, it wont stop the uncontrolled diver from hitting the reef, but it will stop him/her from hitting it with impunity.

as far as the cold issue, if your feet are cold put a hat on is what my granny always used to tell me bless her soul.

A hood will keep you far warmer than gloves.

Personally I feel that whatever we can do to lesten the damage from the thundering crouds is good. Even if you feel less secure without a knife, there is no entanglement hazard in Coz, it is just not nessecary. If we dont make an effort to take care of a shared underwater natural heritage like a coral reef, then who will??

Points well taken...

 

[Christi]

In their defense, I'm pretty sure that it's not the same folks who make the marine park rules who approve the building of cruise ship piers.

You are correct! Trust me, when the cruise ship piers are built, the marine park is not happy and they fight along with all of the other environmentally aware people, but we just don't win

 

[Dive-Ho]

I usually wear one glove on my left hand for anchoring in the sand and keep the right hand free to operate my camera, no one has ever said anything about it. No Michael Jackson jokes please!

I have seen a lot of people wearing gloves down there, even DM's who have a tendancy to get colder than a lot of us because of being in the water so much.

I also ALWAYS dive with a knife, it's part of my equipment...it's the way I was taught to dive and I wouldn't be with out it.
I sometimes get a comment from the DM like "planning on killing something?" but they have never said I couldn't wear it.

I almost always wear gloves Not for touching but I like to have them when hanging on a tag line climbing the ladder etc. I also have a very small knife (tool not a weapon )on my BC, I have been diving in cozumel for years and have never had any problem.
YMMV
Dive-Ho

 

[doole]

I'd miss a 6" or so knife for those moments when the rest of your group has stopped to look at something, you're on the outside in the current and your only way of slowing down is to push your knife into the sand.

However, I certainly also have to concede that the park people are certainly not the same people who make decisions about cruise ship piers.

Maybe that's a problem.