Developing new specialties.

[Eric Sedletzky]

This is simply wrong. The cost of developing a distinctive specialty is negligible to them, and they aren't planning to make any real money off of them. That is just the old "money-grab" cliché that people love so much on ScubaBoard.

I created 3 distinctive specialties. PADI consulted with me about adjustments to the first drafts I submitted, but that's it. I had to pay a minor fee to be certified to teach it, as would any other instructor who used my outline. I created all my own instructional materials, so they didn't get anything from from that. Once I started teaching the class, the only money they got was from certification cards, and that was only from the students who wanted a certification card. In the case of the students who took the class for the learning and didn't want a card for it, PADI didn't even know they took the class.

This wouldn’t just be local to Northern California, this course and training could extend the entire state of California plus Oregon and Washington.
Purple urchins are a problem along the ENTIRE west coast. The alarm bell has been rung and the scientific community is very concerned about 95% loss of the kelp forests along the entire west coast. Citizens brigades will be a tool they can use, but not just any schmo that want’s to dive, they will need to be trained. A friend of mine who developed the California Kelp Restoration Corp (it’s a 501(c)(3)), is constantly talking to and lobbying the CADFW to add addendums and improve rules on purple urchin removal and management. He has a lot of pull.
So this class wouldn’t just be a dozen people taking it, it would be a lot more than that.
Right now urchin removal is in it’s infancy. There are no standards or protocols, it’s a little bit wild west-ish when it comes to how to do this. We’d like to combine all the techniques and best practices that we’ve figured out and come up with comprehensive course that sets people on the right track so people don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time they want to figure out the best ways to collect urchins. This will also train people so maybe they can go out and start removal groups and adopt a cove of their own at different locations. If they select divers that have been through the course at least they will know that they’ve had some exposure and experience on how to do it safely and efficiently.
Why me, why do I want to do this? Because nobody else is taking the reins that I can see. Somebody has to take charge and do it.
If I didn’t rally the divers and get my LDS involved, Stillwater Cove would still be an urchin barren. You should see it now.
I already dropped in and talked to my LDS yesterday. They are on board and we’d like to have something developed by the beginning of next year.

 

[boulderjohn]

This wouldn’t just be local to Northern California, this course and training could extend the entire state of California plus Oregon Plus Washington.
Purple urchins are a problem along the ENTIRE west coast. The alarm bell has been rung and the scientific community is very concerned about 95% loss of the kelp forests along the entire west coast. Citizens brigades will be a tool they can use, but not just any schmo that want’s to dive, they will need to be trained. A friend of mine who developed the California Kelp Restoration Corp (it’s a 501(c)(3)), is constantly talking to and lobbying the CADFW to add addendums and improve rules on purple urchin removal and management. He has a lot of pull.
So this class wouldn’t just be a dozen people taking it, it would be a lot more than that.
Right now urchin removal is in it’s infancy. There are no standards or protocols, it’s a little bit wild west-ish when it comes to how to do this. We’d like to combine all the techniques and best practices that we’ve figured out and come up with comprehensive course that sets people on the right track so people don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time they want to figure out the best ways to collect urchins. This will also train people so maybe they can go out and start removal groups and adopt a cove of their own at different locations. If they select divers that have been through the course at least they will know that they’ve had some exposure and experience on how to do it safely and efficiently.
Why me, why do I want to do this? Because nobody else is taking the reins that I can see. Somebody has to take charge and do it.
If I didn’t rally the divers and get my LDS involved, Stillwater Cove would still be an urchin barren. You should see it now.
I already dropped in and talked to my LDS yesterday. They are on board and we’d like to have something developed by the beginning of next year.

Sounds like fun. If I lived in the area and were not retired, I would be all over it.

 

[tryerson64]

They are on board and we’d like to have something developed by the beginning of next year.

This would be something I’d plan a trip around, assuming I could be gotten up to speed in a timely fashion - maybe trained on a first trip, useful and safe on subsequent trips. Could that be helpful to the effort? Challenging and worthwhile… maybe type 2 fun, but intriguing! Following with interest.

 

[VikingDives]

This wouldn’t just be local to Northern California, this course and training could extend the entire state of California plus Oregon and Washington.
Purple urchins are a problem along the ENTIRE west coast. The alarm bell has been rung and the scientific community is very concerned about 95% loss of the kelp forests along the entire west coast. Citizens brigades will be a tool they can use, but not just any schmo that want’s to dive, they will need to be trained. A friend of mine who developed the California Kelp Restoration Corp (it’s a 501(c)(3)), is constantly talking to and lobbying the CADFW to add addendums and improve rules on purple urchin removal and management. He has a lot of pull.
So this class wouldn’t just be a dozen people taking it, it would be a lot more than that.
Right now urchin removal is in it’s infancy. There are no standards or protocols, it’s a little bit wild west-ish when it comes to how to do this. We’d like to combine all the techniques and best practices that we’ve figured out and come up with comprehensive course that sets people on the right track so people don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time they want to figure out the best ways to collect urchins. This will also train people so maybe they can go out and start removal groups and adopt a cove of their own at different locations. If they select divers that have been through the course at least they will know that they’ve had some exposure and experience on how to do it safely and efficiently.
Why me, why do I want to do this? Because nobody else is taking the reins that I can see. Somebody has to take charge and do it.
If I didn’t rally the divers and get my LDS involved, Stillwater Cove would still be an urchin barren. You should see it now.
I already dropped in and talked to my LDS yesterday. They are on board and we’d like to have something developed by the beginning of next year.

This seems like a really cool idea, but I’d suggest you develop an instructor program (non-diving) that you control that the instructors have to complete prior to gaining the specialty certification.

You might also require a few dives where they do the thing so they aren’t teaching the skills for something they’ve never actually done.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

This would be something I’d plan a trip around, assuming I could be gotten up to speed in a timely fashion - maybe trained on a first trip, useful and safe on subsequent trips. Could that be helpful to the effort? Challenging and worthwhile… maybe type 2 fun, but intriguing! Following with interest.

Dude! Anything would be helpful to the effort!

Here’s what I would do.
Do you have any cold water ocean experience?
It’s not as threatening as it sounds.
We’re not lunatics either, if the conditions are marginal I’ll call a dive.
Most of us use wetsuits. I found that the best and warmest ones are the two piece attached hood beavertail style freediving suits. They fit great and are warm. This isn’t deep diving, it’s up to 25’ maybe 30’ eventually, but more like 5’ to 15’ right now, so suit crushing isn’t a concern.
The BC is your choice, I just ask that it has enough non breakable attachment points that you can clip off the necessary items and have them accessable when needed without help.
I also prefer people to own their gear and to know and understand their gear in the conditions that you’ll be diving (cold water low 50’s) also heavy fins we found work best. I use Jetfins because if the weight and I can also stuff rocks into the vents to keep them down. Light feet using neutral fins are a big complaint.
This also isn’t the place to be doing gear checks with rental gear, that will just add one more layer of drama. In warm water maybe it’s different, but here knowing your gear is a lot more critical.
I also have to emphasize that these urchin removal dives are not lead dives by an instructor or a dive master. We have lead fun dives in our area through shops, but not during these urchin diving operations. Those would be separate.
So depending on what your cold water ocean shore diving experience is would base where I could suggest going from here.
You could set yourself up with your stuff and plan an “acclimation” vacation.
Just do some shore dives to get used to it. Then when the class starts, book your spot and do that which will include shore dives. Then either at the same you’re here do some urchin diving if the scheduling works out. I’d like to set these up so students can go from the course right to a real urchin dive right away while they are still salty if you know what I mean. That would mean class and pool work on a Friday evening or Saturday, ocean training dives on Saturday or Sunday, and urchin dives are always on Sunday. If the training dives were on Sunday they would be real urchin dives and whatever you collect would go towards the official count, but the only difference would be you’d be with an instructor and getting your certification.
We had a gal drive down all the way from Portland Oregon to dive with us.
We also had a couple from Australia that were on vacation in the bay area. One was an instructor and the other dive master and were experienced divers that ran a big dive club in Australia.
They happened to be on their way up north to go wine tasting in Healdsburg and saw the dive shop off the freeway so they swung in to check it out. They were talking to the staff and saw the sign up sheet for urchin dives. Next thing you know, they changed their plans, rented full sets of gear and tanks for the next day and joined us! They had never dived cold water or worn 7mm suits with all the weight and they did fine. But they were very experienced divers too. What a kick!

So yeah, if you have the time and the money to travel and to stay you could do this in increments.
There’s also a lot to do here topside. The wine country is considered an adult Disneyland.
Lots of cute towns, miles of picturesque coastline, great restaurants, it’s very cultural.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I just found this:

Diver Call Out: Monterey Kelp Restoration Project

PADI Torchbearer and MSDT Instructor James Moskito calls on divers to save our kelp forests and prove that volunteer Torchbearers can make a difference.

blog.padi.com

So there is a kelp restoration specialty already.
I can tweak it to include collection not just culling.

 

[ofg-1]

How about a "Specialty Development Specialist" specialty?

 

[Belzelbub]

A friend of mine who developed the California Kelp Restoration Corp (it’s a 501(c)(3)), is constantly talking to and lobbying the CADFW to add addendums and improve rules on purple urchin removal and management. He has a lot of pull.

It’s awesome that you are tackling this effort,

Once you have the qualifications down to make sure people do it right, there is an opportunity for an incentive that your friend may be able to push CAFDW on. While we don’t have this same issue in Florida, we do have a bunch of invasive species. One incentive the FWC offers is extra lobster during mini season for divers that have harvested and reported at least 25 lionfish get an increased bag limit (2 extra) per day during mini season. Perhaps something like that can be negotiated to reward participants.

 

[rmorgan]

Eric, a couple of instructors on Bonaire recently developed a seahorse specialty and PADI accepted it. I don't know what hoops they went through, but I'll PM you their information if you'd like.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It’s awesome that you are tackling this effort,

Once you have the qualifications down to make sure people do it right, there is an opportunity for an incentive that your friend may be able to push CAFDW on. While we don’t have this same issue in Florida, we do have a bunch of invasive species. One incentive the FWC offers is extra lobster during mini season for divers that have harvested and reported at least 25 lionfish get an increased bag limit (2 extra) per day during mini season. Perhaps something like that can be negotiated to reward participants.

I think you are probably luckier in Florida when it comes to common sense. IDK, it seems like when the lionfish thing first hit all the rules to get them were effective immediately. They had derbies, restaurants could serve them, etc. Here it would have been 10 years of study and then a bunch of red tape to make anything happen…at a glacial pace.
This purple urchin problem started about 13 years ago. They are just now starting to react to it. In my area the state hired all of the out of work red urchin divers and they are paying them to collect purples now to keep them employed. It’s good what they’re doing but it should have been all hands on deck including citizens. Make it unlimited take, heck even drop the fishing license, just get them! I proposed putting a bounty on them where ordinary citizens could go out and collect them then get paid so much per lb. Oh hell no! They’ll never do that!
Gavin Newsom bragged about this huge budget surplus they had. I thought, well there’s your money. A year later they claim 65 billion in debt?
I’m jealous of states with common sense where things just happen. It’s not brain surgery.