DIVER Vs TRAWLER DAMAGE

[cdiver2]

I have seen a lot of posts on SB regarding damage to the marine environment by divers ( some with a lot of scathing remarks)
After attending a marine conservation lecture in Aus where we were told that damage to the marine environment by divers is minuscule to say the least, then I read this article ( BBC - Richard Black's Earth Watch )about the damage done by trawlers. It would seem that one trawler doe's more damage in one day than all divers do in a year.
That is not to say we should not take care when we dive but give a little leeway to those that accidentally transgress. perhaps we should prioritise our anger at the damage done to the environment, I know it is a lot easier to point the finger here on the board than it is to do something about fishing practises but it will not resolve the problem.

 

[muddiver]

It is a lot eaisier to legislate a hobby (i.e. SCUBA diving) than it is to attack a multi billion dollar industry. Fisherman have been dragging the bottom of the ocean at all depths for thousands of years, it is highly unlikely that any government is going to really set up any strong law that will constrain them and/or impact their ability to harvest fish and every thing else that gets scooped up with them.

 

[elmer fudd]

People tend to get upset about the things that they can see. They see divers dragging their consoles across the reef, but they generally don't see the trawlers in action.

As someone who used to do a lot of hunting here in the PNW back during the days of the spotted owl controversy, I heard a lot of alarmism about clearcuts, but as someone who has lived here, clearcuts weren't the real problem. Give a clearcut a few years and it quickly reverts to forest and allows for a wide variety of ferns and berries to grow in the process. The real problem is development. Clearcuts just look ugly for a couple of years, but once you put a housing development, strip mall and a Fred Meyer store in you've lost that patch of wilderness practically forever.

 

[dreams4divers]

I have seen a lot of posts on SB regarding damage to the marine environment by divers ( some with a lot of scathing remarks)
After attending a marine conservation lecture in Aus where we were told that damage to the marine environment by divers is minuscule to say the least, then I read this article ( BBC - Richard Black's Earth Watch )about the damage done by trawlers. It would seem that one trawler doe's more damage in one day than all divers do in a year.

It is definably so that trawlers do more damage, but if you look at most of the diving hotspots, they are only hot for so long, once large numbers of divers start to frequent the areas marine life moves elsewhere and the noticable damage to the reefs is often evident.

On the good side Divers bring attention to areas helping to show the need for conservation, the tourism generates income which often leads to the stopping of destructive fishing and also to the protection of an area.

Though I see it a little like this if you remove 1 large threat but then let hundreds of little threats in is it a correct philosophy.

My personal experience is most well trained divers are very careful, to bring diver damage to the root cause, you need to examine the scuba industry as a whole, from telling someone they should become an instructor in a video often before they have entered the water and then creating a factory style program based on pass rates and sales techniques rather than quality and standards. Live the dream!

Many people can achieve good standards and become advocates of environmentally friendly diver practices, but also many do not and start to teach others before they have a true understanding of the ocean and environmentally friendly techniques.

How many divers do you know that will tell you they did not really know how to dive after a 3 or sometimes 2 day ow course, yet they hold a card often themselves wondering how they actually passed.

I am sure that every new instructor could sell you a new dive computer, a continuing education course but how many could explain to you the importance of the marine ecosystem or even how to achieve the least impact to it whilst diving.

Divers have the ability to dive friendly, operators have the ability to follow procedures that does not put 10 novice divers with an untrained guide on top of a reef or put pressure on instructors to certify no matter what.

All the posts defending divers should be there, divers are the main force behind changing the decline of the worlds marine environment. but divers should also stand up to the unscrupulous operators more concerned about a quick buck than the ocean that they use to make it.

 

[drbill]

Certainly the impacts from fishing, especially commercial boats, are orders of magnitude greater than the damage done by divers. However there are differences. Trawlers frequent the deeper waters (and do tremendous damage to the habitat and species populations there). Divers generally frequent depths less than 130 ft and can do significant damage within that zone as well.

One site here on Catalina, Sea Fan Grotto, experiences a lot of damage to the soft corals or gorgonians there due to carelessness and poor buoyancy control. Every time I dive it I see more than a few gorgonians ripped off the walls and on the bottom.

Both should be addressed.

 

[drdiver1952]

That's very true, drbill. There is also significant damage caused by fishermen to reefs as well.

 

[djtimmy77]

Do your part, don't buy products that are harvested as a result of trawling.