Gloves on reefs
- Thread starter Soggy
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Soggy
Contributor
I'd like to apologize to SeaJay for this getting so off topic.
...wearing gloves is the ticket for breaking off coral heads without getting cuts or scrapes on your hands.
Fins work much better.
I wear gloves in the tropics cuz I don't like to get my hands wet.
MD
If you don't break the Coral how will anyone know you've been there and you all know how we like to leave a lasting impression on places we've been. Besides it's cheaper to break off a piece for a souvenir than to buy it in a gift shop. It only a small piece anyways what else are you going to do to remember that dive? Take a picture! yea right, like we all have thousands of dollors to spend on an underwater camera after renting all the scuba equiptment not to mention what it costs to go on a trip. You wouldn't even have enough money left over to party and get drunk with. Besides you only dive what once, twice a year if your lucky why wast the money on cameras and eq just get a good set of gloves and grab away. Even if you use your fins you still have to pick it up and put it in your pocket.
Geek
Geek
Aquamaniac
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Totally agree there, I once took the boat out without an anchor, what I did when we got to the site was jump over with all my gear, and a long rope, when we got to the bottom, I tied us of onto this huge Fan coral. The bloody thing literally fell apart as I was tying off. If I wasnt wearing gloves at the time, I would have been a mess!
But remember... when you bust off a live coral head you will need a bucket and some bleach solution to soak and then rinse it in... especially if you are a day or two from flying home or the smell will be horrible in your carry-on.
Dave.... tying to fan coral? What were you thinking man!!! Best get (or make) yourself one of those reef hooks that you can jam into a big sturdy brain coral. Good thing you were wearing you gloves though.
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The gloves thing is kinda funny the way its gone here (after all, how could you tickle the diver in front of you with a sprig of fire coral without gloves?) but the fact is that hand contact is a small part of diver related reef damage.
Most reef damage is caused by pollution, proven fact. Boat groundings do a lot of damage also. The big part of the diver damage is done by feet, not hands.
Watch your average vacationing diver. He or she swims at a head-up angle, fins often on or near the bottom, roto-tillers Pug calls them. Check sometime, its true.
When I was crewing dive boats in Key Largo my DM and I decided to do an informal test. For a whole week we would check the fins of every diver as they got out of the water (getting on a boat while carrying their own fins is another thing most divers can't do).
What we were looking for was evidence of reef contact. What we found was that more than 80% of divers had coral slime (yes, coral has a slime layer to protect it) on their fins. Many even had pieces of gorgonia caught in their fancy little adjustable buckles.
Informal, yes. Scientific, no. The results were no surprise and I bet if some crew did the same survey next week they'd get similar results.
WW
Most reef damage is caused by pollution, proven fact. Boat groundings do a lot of damage also. The big part of the diver damage is done by feet, not hands.
Watch your average vacationing diver. He or she swims at a head-up angle, fins often on or near the bottom, roto-tillers Pug calls them. Check sometime, its true.
When I was crewing dive boats in Key Largo my DM and I decided to do an informal test. For a whole week we would check the fins of every diver as they got out of the water (getting on a boat while carrying their own fins is another thing most divers can't do).
What we were looking for was evidence of reef contact. What we found was that more than 80% of divers had coral slime (yes, coral has a slime layer to protect it) on their fins. Many even had pieces of gorgonia caught in their fancy little adjustable buckles.
Informal, yes. Scientific, no. The results were no surprise and I bet if some crew did the same survey next week they'd get similar results.
WW
Aquamaniac
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2 Stroke Motor oil is the biggest issue we have in my home town.(http://www.coralbay.org/) The entire bay area has been wiped out, and the living fringe area is moving every year. Its very sad to see, it once was pritine, now its dead. No amount of coral handling will equate to the damage from boats.
You know what works real good if you need to tie up is to take out your Knife (I always dive with one of those big ones incase I need to fight off the sharks) Dig out a bit of coral and make a small hole then tie your line off on the knife and then wedge the knife into the area you just dug out. I got one wedged in so bad I had to borrow my buddys kbnife to chip off enough coral to get it out. Another tip is to take an extra glove along and wrap it around the line were it rubs on the coral so your line doesn't fray and break. Gloves are cheap I always keep a couple of extra pairs.
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