Do you touch?

[Sharkbaithawaii]

I like to touch. It started in sixth grade when an enviromental program took us to look and play in tide pools in marin, CA. Since then I have been facsinated by the sea. And that includes playing with sea life. Please, take my card, i have dove without one before. And stop giving me your humble opinions. Give me fact. Corals don't die from touching. Gloves don't kill fish. And yes i have been cut, stung, and bitten, and I still dive and still go back for more, and i don't where gloves, can't feel with them on.
Sorry about the rant, but I am tired of people "educating me".

No gloves to protect the coral? How about no cars to protect the the air I breath.

Can we all get off the the horses and put them in the stable, and give me the soapboxes to build homes for the poor.

 

[GlazierB]

I treat the ocean like a strip club... I look but don't touch

 

[del_mo]

I will touch if I can do so with out altering the behavior of the animal. I recently scratched the head of a hawksbill while it was eating. He couldn't have cared less that I was around.

But, what I saw earlier in the week on a night dive made me rethink touching. The local DM, who I'm sure equated showmanship with tips, grabbed a sleeping nurse shark by its peduncle and tried to pull it out from its overhang, scaring the s**t out of it, causing it to panic and run back and forth into the walls before finally escaping into another overhang. I was disgusted by the behavior. To make this worse, this was in a national (no touch) park. This wasn't the only animal this DM accosted.

 

[Walter]

I will touch if I can do so with out altering the behavior of the animal. I recently scratched the head of a hawksbill while it was eating. He couldn't have cared less that I was around.

But, what I saw earlier in the week on a night dive made me rethink touching. The local DM, who I'm sure equated showmanship with tips, grabbed a sleeping nurse shark by its peduncle and tried to pull it out from its overhang, scaring the s**t out of it, causing it to panic and run back and forth into the walls before finally escaping into another overhang. I was disgusted by the behavior. To make this worse, this was in a national (no touch) park. This wasn't the only animal this DM accosted.

There's a big difference between grabbing and touching. I wouldn't touch a turtle anywhere near the head.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

After getting my ears repeatedly chomped on by bluegill while diving in a quarry, I adopted a boxer's stance in the water column, and as they came by, I jabbed at them. Damn bluegill. Hrmph....

There wasn't much else to do anyway. Visibility was -3'.

 

[Guba]

I still have to go with the "preponderence of evidence" on this one. Some reef sites get very little visitation due to their isolated locations, and the majority of these have experienced divers, most of whom refrain from handling the marine life. In these areas you usually see healthy systems that have changed little over the last decade or two. Areas that have more frequent divers and get touched a great deal (whether by accident or intent) have not fared as well. I have to believe that most marine organisms such as corals do not withstand being handled acceptably.
Banning the gloves is more or less irrelevant. As at least one poster stated, there are ways around that. The truer issue is should divers have the discipline to moderate their own behavior in lieu of draconian rules? My opinion (worth far less than two cents, of course) is that we should have that kind of self-discipline and refrain from close contact with the reefs.

 

[tangfish]

One reason not to touch things is that some animals (Wolf Eels, Manta Rays, etc.) have a thin antibacterial mucous-like lining that covers their entire bodies. This layer helps to fight infections and other undesirable sicknesses. Touching these animals rubs off this layer, and oils from our hands and/or the roughness of our gloves strips these antibacterial layers off of the marine life and thus makes them more susceptible to sickness.

Also, touching some animals can lead to them straying from their natural behaviors. Feeding the animals can make them come to divers to look for food, getting aggressive in the future or simply beginning to depend on them for feedings (and thus not eating the appropriate foodstuffs). Some animals are affected more than others (and some, not at all), but if you are unsure enough to have to ask then you probably shouldn't be touching anything at all.

Leave it to the marine biologists and buy an underwater digital camera to capture sightings of cool creatures instead of potentially inflicting harm on them.

 

[desiredbard]

...Remember the "PRIME DIRECTIVE"...lol... see ya` under

Never Ever Hold Your Breath???????
What has that got to with it

 

[Amazon]

Our DM in Aruba for our OW class had "KEEP OFF CORAL" marked on the bottom of his fins. Couldn't miss it....A great reminder for us newbies as we were following him along the reef.

Good job Freddie!

 

[IceIce]

To touch or not to touch is always a tricky question.

I read from Scubaboard if I'm not wrong that staghorn coral grows 3mm a year, then I remember I used to cling on them one or two times in the past. My one moment of touching them may cost one year of their live, not to mention the destroyed polips underneath.
If half of the divers do the same then I have no doubt that touching do contribute to the damage.

Touching marine life like fish, seahorse etc also may not harm them directly on the first place, but it may stress them enough to harm them or make them decide to move. On a popular diving sites, as many as hundreds of diver a day can go to the same dive sites, times the impact by the number of divers, of course the impacts are there.

The temptation to touch of course are always there and I do agree that not all of them are bad, especially the encounters initiated by the marine life themselves.
Just make sure that it doesn't harm them or other divers in long term. (Ex. feeding may lead them to associate divers with food and affect their diet). How to make sure? I don't think we can, so it's better if we go down as a visitor and watch.

A paradise is a paradise until it discovered by human.


P.S : I do agree that glove is essential as a safety equipment, not to encourage divers to touch. On one dive without glove, I found myself touch more as I can feel more then I like to try more. Stupid of course. But no gloves doesn't prevent touching.