Future of Diving in 25 years or less

[dorkdiver]

You have faith in nature, but I have no faith in humans, and the scale of current environmental destruction by humans is not natural nor repairable by nature.

 

[Remy B.]

I have more faith in nature.

We don't give it enough time to do so.

 

[rgdiver1]

Having been certified in 1968, I can attest that some things have definitely changed in the past 50 years. Quite frankly however, I think the reefs I dived 20 or even just 10 years ago have declined noticeably.

Another thing that has changed since I was originally certified is training. My original instructor was a retired Navy diver, and our training was very rigorous and thorough compared to much of today's recreational diver training. This has resulted in lots of sport divers, which may be good for the industry in the near term, it puts more and more pressure on the reefs and other resources we are trying to preserve.

My ideal future of sport diving would include better trained divers who are very environmentally aware and actively involved in conservation.

 

[dorkdiver]

Judging from many of the glib comments regarding environmental concerns, I do not see fellow divers as conservationists for the most part.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I dived MUSA last November and there are several statues of men with brief cases with their heads buried in the sand. To me they represent the greed of corporations and hotel owners who think only of making money today, with no thought of the consequences. At the Museo of Cozumel they have (or had) an exhibit that predicts how much the developments on land effect the environment under the water. The way I understood it is that if you build a hotel on the shore you lose a certain amount of reef etc. They seem to have a pretty good idea on Cozumel what the consequences will be if they keep building, but will they keep their heads buried in the sand?

I watched Chasing Coral plus have read a lot of other information on the subject and part of the blame for the loss of coral in the Great Barrier Reef is due to the increased water temperatures. If this is true then it's also possible that coral may begin to grow a little further South where the water temperatures are now cooler. Like others have said, nature changes. I also wonder how much effect protecting the sea turtles is having on the reefs--they devour sponges etc and have no regard for how much coral or gargonia they knock over in the process. To me it would be interesting to know if there are an unnatural number of turtles since we began to protect them. I have also seen small fish trying to chase away the munching turtles presumably because their nest is right there. Sometimes the turtle moves to a new spot and sometimes not, so it's possible they are also reducing some fish populations. Man is attempting to balance nature and has a history of not doing a very good job of it.

Recently I read (again) about California divers going out and killing the sea urchins who are destroying the kelp beds. I dunno, but it seems to me that that's what sea urchins do. They destroy their own food supply and then starve to death. Then the kelp grows back. Then the sea urchins show up again. To me it seems like a natural cycle but that doesn't mean we have to like it

 

[JamesBon92007]

Judging from many of the glib comments regarding environmental concerns, I do not see fellow divers as conservationists for the most part.

I am guilty of being glib--I can't see any other option other than Man will continue to build until there's nothing left of nature. We seem to be the only creature on the planet that is at odds with nature whereas just about everything else is in harmony with nature.

 

[Remy B.]

rgdiver1, please watch the documentary so you will understand that diving is a very small problem, compared to global warming and overpopulation of the coastal areas and animal farming.

Diving industry has helped as well to create programs to introduce coral farms and other types of marine species recuperation, but watch the documentary and you will understand the problem.

 

[woodcarver]

From one perspective

 

[TMHeimer]

Judging from many of the glib comments regarding environmental concerns, I do not see fellow divers as conservationists for the most part.

I don't know. They're definitely environmentally concerned here on ScubaBoard. Maybe not quite as much so out in the real world.

 

[scubafanatic]

Not to sound defeatist, but I think humanity will succeed in killing off most of the biosphere, humanity will then perish or at least die-off/collapse back to a primitive hunter/gatherer existence whereby what's left of mother nature slowly recovers/regenerates/evolves into a new world order after many millions of years.