Do you touch?

[RadRob]

If you are boat diving and your boat hooks to a permanent buoy, the mooring line will have microscopic organisms all over it that sting. If you use the line at all, you should have gloves on or risk an infection. Also, if you are a new diver who doesn't have the necessary buoyancy skills, you should have gloves to keep from hurting yourself as well as the reef. Once you gain the skill, you wont need to use the line and you wont need to worry about "accidentally" hitting reefs that can cut you. So I see the need for SOME people to wear gloves for safety's sake of the person and the reef. And I have heard the argument if you dont have the skill then you shouldn't be diving. There will always be the diver that doesn't have the skill and dive anyway. We have to have rules that apply to everyone, not just the "skilled" diver.

 

[Bruciebabe]

Also, if you are a new diver who doesn't have the necessary buoyancy skills, you should have gloves to keep from hurting yourself as well as the reef.

This is exactly why you shouldn't have gloves. If someone doesn't have the buoyancy skills they shouldn't be on the reef. Gloves are not a substitute for bad training.

 

[Zoomer]

Ok, I'm going to say this and let the bashing begin.... Our Coral Reefs are not dying because we TOUCH them..... Coral reefs are dying because of water warming trends, disease caused by poor water quality (chemicals and other things) and they are being over run by algae (again water quality)...

With that said I still do not condone the practice of touching coral or anything else living on or around our Reefs.

Nuff Said...

 

[Phil TK]

Once you gain the skill, you wont need to use the line and you wont need to worry about "accidentally" hitting reefs that can cut you. We have to have rules that apply to everyone, not just the "skilled" diver.

What about holding on to the line in a strong current? Skilled or not, you'll be holding on to it in that (very common) circumstance
People hit reefs accidentally irrespective of skill level, -when I'm videoing it's not unheard of for a group of muppets to blunder along and knock me into something, I sometimes have to shoot out a hand to steady myself. They knock each other into the reef too, these people need not be of low skill level they are more often just larking about.
If you want to pick on a piece of equipment that damages coral more than any other it's fins! Why has no-one suggested that novices be restricted to fins 6 inches long or something.
I've read that reefs get damaged by pollution, global warming, eco-imbalance, divers horseplay, incompetant skills, poor bouyancy and fin control. What can we do.
I know, lets ban gloves, that'll do it!
Phil TK

 

[fishb0y]

Ok, I'm going to say this and let the bashing begin.... Our Coral Reefs are not dying because we TOUCH them..... Coral reefs are dying because of water warming trends, disease caused by poor water quality (chemicals and other things) and they are being over run by algae (again water quality)...Nuff Said...

THANK YOU!!! I was waiting for someone to finnally say it! I agree totally!

 

[jopperdepopper]

Ok, I'm going to say this and let the bashing begin.... Our Coral Reefs are not dying because we TOUCH them..... Coral reefs are dying because of water warming trends, disease caused by poor water quality (chemicals and other things) and they are being over run by algae (again water quality)...

With that said I still do not condone the practice of touching coral or anything else living on or around our Reefs.

Nuff Said...

How true or not true that may be - there is no reason or excuse whatsoever to add to the deterioration of anything if you can prevent it... in this case by simple keeping your hands to yourself...

 

[oly5050user]

On my first check-out open water dives, my assistant instructor removed a rock so that he could grab a lobster and show off to the female students. Grade "A" moron.

was this up north? not in the islands..its rock ..lobster hunters di this all the time with no ill effects..just put things back the way it weas.. this thread seems to be about fragile tropical life..

 

[donnyb]

I have to disagree with you there, I consider gloves an important part of my dive kit and every time I see a hand injury I'm grateful for wearing them. I've defied these glove bans in various places and resent the implications when people tell me not to wear them -often in frank terms.
Last season my girlfriend cut her hand badly on a mooring line and a german friend put his hand on a spiny fish (unknown type) whilst doing a skill circuit. Both injurys might have been prevented by wearing gloves, both injurys resulted in no diving for over a week. Both divers now wear gloves!
I do wonder why people think a gloves ban stops people touching things, from what I've seen it makes no difference. There is no evidence that wearing them encourages people to touch things and anyway you don't need gloves for example to pick up a sea cucumber and make it 'ejaculate'-which seems very popular thesedays (I get fed up seeing this antic). A proper warning about deliberate 'touching' should be in the dive briefing with a threat to cancel dive 2 for any miscreants -and that's all you can do really.
Phil TK

I tend to agree. I believe gloves are part of your safety equipment and prevent injury when you must touch something. The do not give someone a license to grab whatever they want, and anyone who does this has a poor regard for the environment. I suspect the no gloves policy evolved to avoid confrontations between divemasters and their customers, the same customers they hope to get tips from at the end of the day/trip.

 

[Guba]

To: Fishboy, in response to your questions.
Most corals get at least a portion of their nutrition from capturing other miniscule organisms. As you probably already know, this is done by stinging cells called nematocysts that have a set "trigger" that, once touched, fires a poisonous "harpoon" designed to debilitate the prey. When one touches a coral, even with a gloved hand, many of these stinging cells will be deployed by the coral organism. These cells must be replentished, and that takes time, energy and resources. Therefore, to haphazardly touch a coral diminishes its ability to snare food and, ultimately, weakens it. What other divers have mentioned may be superficially true. Simply touching most coral will not immediately kill it. However, its chances for survival are diminished, and in a crowded community of organisms such as a reef, that may very well spell the difference in life and death. Therefore, as a diver and a professional science educator, I will not touch the reef except to remove man-made debris, and then only if removing the material will not further damage living organisms.

 

[Diver0001]

I've read that reefs get damaged by pollution, global warming, eco-imbalance, divers horseplay, incompetant skills, poor bouyancy and fin control. What can we do.
I know, lets ban gloves, that'll do it!

Phil, this is the same kind of *stupid* logic that made a certain western government reject the whole idea of pollution control (the Kyoto accord) because pollution was not their sole responsibilty.....

Do you want to associate yourself with a phenomenon that shows the collective IQ of a hamster?

R..