LisaG, welcome to diving. You sound young, and that is not a disease. . . You will have problems telling people what's happening underwater that's detrimental. . . How do I know? I've been talking about underwater changes since the first earth day. Leading a group of divers we offered help to a National wildlife refuge, they had us pick up empty beer cans from a small lake, then told us to carry 3, 55 gallon barrels of trash out of the park. They didn't want to hear about problems in the water except beer cans.
A chemical spill in a freshwater lake was covered up. . . what do divers know about dead fish.
Now with 38 years of diving, I can get my message out by talking to fishing clubs, talk to marina operators, talk to fishing resorts. . . The way to have someone listen is to prove your experience, then talk to the people who suffer financially with the decline of water quality.
Wildlife biologists say what their bosses tell them to say, Park rangers, Corps of Engineers, will let you talk for hours, then ignore the problems. But let the people with a financial interest in live fish, complain an here comes big brother.
Dive a lot, log your diving conditions, and don't give up the first 50 times you're ignored by bureaucrats.