Do Not Touch

[friscuba]

Perhaps Desiredbard wouldn't mind if large numbers of random people chased him around to give his lower leg a squeeze. It probably wouln't kill him or cause him much physical harm, so why not?

 

[desiredbard]

Perhaps Desiredbard wouldn't mind if large numbers of random people chased him around to give his lower leg a squeeze. It probably wouln't kill him or cause him much physical harm, so why not?

Depends..... how hard they squeeze I might like it, you might not even have to chase me for it
Not going to be psychological here but typing this line gives me an idea.....
Could it be that divers want to touch because we are so used to petting and touching above the waterline?

There hasn't been any "beating around the bush" that I've seen. Most everyone has told you straight up that they will not help you assemble such a list and the majority has explained why.

And I've explained several times why i think its a good idea, not to greate a do touch list via the backdoor, but because i think that being descriptive gives a clearer why not.

Boring? I don't recall seeing that reason but I may have missed it. What you have missed is the number 1 reason given for not doing it. They don't want to encourage ANY touching and making a list of things it is "OK" to touch would do exactly that. That and a lot feel that NO touching should be done. Either one kills the list.

To some .... im physicist..... reading through lists of precedents is boring to me no offence ment.
I know I dont want to create a safe to touch list, but again, knowing what actually happens to the fish before it dies, specific, would be a better warning.

As an adult I find the concept of "don't touch anything you aren't going to eat" to be pretty simple, clear and quite ethical.

Me to, similar to do not open the fridge in the frozen food section unless you are going to take it out. But in the street this particularly fluffy dog/cat walks up to you....do you pet it or not? Fish is the same, although when fishing or eating there is no cute factor. Fish are most beautifull in the water, less beauty above and things when dead.

Go out and buy or go to the library and get a book on fish identification.

So many .....any recomendations...i've seen several and i dont like all of them, guess thats kind of personal.....all i want is to learn, either direct by word of more experienced divers or recommendations by them.

Where the h3ll did that come from and what did it have to do with anything?
Here is your list of things it is OK to touch:
Rocks
Sand
Sealife that will later be dinner
Wrecks
Joe

Look just have the feeling that because of my question people see me like some kind of dragnet behind a megatrawler.
I'm not a treehugger, neither do i believe in needlesly hurtin, harming animals even if your going to eat them.
My point is and I dont see why it upsets people so much:

Everybody learns in his discover scuba/ OW or AOW (I was only told in OW) 1st Rule Breath 2nd Rule Dont touch
2nd dive during OW course DM picked and stroked a cucumber.
Now some of us (I do believe I am not the only one) dont take the 2nd rule as strickt, maybe we should but thats not what this topic is about)

As seen in my avatar: thats the reason I posted this. I was handed this by my DM and tought good opportunity.
Now maybe I should have said no directly but thing is: I did not (as you can see)
I only found out afterwards what the ACTUAL consequence could have been for the puffer: how it would die.
To me more impressive than the fish will die.
(The last fish I killed was a 14 pound pike which swallowed the bait fully, cruel to be kind, now that sounds ok but since the prick in the boat with me droped the knife, I had to batter its scull with a bottle and since that omnly nocked him out jam the oarring into its scull from behind. [still kinder than letting it die from internal bleeding or suffocation)
Which line makes you realise that angling can be cruel more? (BTW I ate the pike because its a waste of a beautifull fish) I bloody well am super carefull with my fag ends (that they dont end up in the ocean) as to avoid a turtle getting a nicotine addiction.

Again I am not trying to creat a you can touch list. It might be quite clear its in general not a good thing to do.
I hoped to creat a (long) list would make newbies realise whats happening, and that with details foto's could create a very clear not to be misunderstood warning. And the longer the list the clearer the message that you should not touch anything. I tried to get that point across several times but hey, someone came up witn the Idea Fixe that I wnated to know which one are safe to touch and everyone has been hammering on about it.

Personally (personal opinion and not intended to insult but i dont know how to formulate it different) I think its kind of stupid that pro and experienced divers will not explain to newbies in detail what can go wrong, and "die" alone is in these days a very powerless word. I really hoped to raise awareness and contribute to preservation by my mistake.

Well anyway, from now on I wont post in this thread anymore, I'll see if other people do get it now or PM me, but after 10/11 pages I have no hope of anyone getting any raised awarenes

 

[stevetim]

No disrespect to marine conservationists, but if I want to touch marine life I am going to do it. Not mangle and pester it, but interact with it. If it feels the need to swim away from me, I let it. If it lets me interact with it, I do. It's my dive, nobody owns the ocean to say what can and can't be done, and unless there are laws written prohibitting interaction with marine life(I'm not talking about feeding either), I will continue to do it unless the animal is on an endangered species list or doesn't want me to. I've heard some divers saying that just swimming towards fish makes them change their insticts which in turn leads to their demise. Well, don't dive if you feel that way because your just being there probably does the same(by your logic). What your efforts should be focused on is largescale waste of marine life such as indescriminate net fishing.

Sorry so blunt.

 

[Guba]

Sometimes we "interact" in a drastic way, although it was the farthest thing from our intent.
During a night dive in the GOM, my buddy was showing me an especially beautiful little butterfly fish. Of course, we had big ol' light cannons, and we didn't consider that we were temporarily dazzling the little guy. That fact didn't escape others, though. There was a silver flash over my shoulder, a blast of compressed water against the side of my head and a blur of movement.
The little butterfly was gone. A five foot barracuda, lingering in the darkness behind us, was just waiting for us to spotlight some poor unsuspecting victim. Although we hadn't touched it at all, our "interaction" caused the little guy's demise. Certainly, this is predator-prey interplay, but the fact remains that our actions altered the script for that night's drama. Consequently, we both learned to use less invasive techniques such as smaller lights for closeups and taking care not to blind the marine life.
By touching things, you alter the script as well. What may be harmless "interaction" might very well be a move that will force marine life out of its protection. It may interrupt feeding, breeding, egg-protection, and other survival activities.
Touch if you want (it appears that no amount of reason will dissuade you), but millions of divers like you "interacting" in concert will undoubtedly further stress the world's reef environments at a time when stress is the last thing they need.

 

[SubMariner]

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MODERATOR NOTICE

Once again I have had to clean up inappropriate posts to this thread.

Since it is seems that a useful discussion on this topic is not possible, I have closed the thread.

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