Jarhead
Contributor
I have bent the bridge span beams with my head. Twice. :banging:
Jarhead
Jarhead
Have you damaged a dive site ?
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the days of bouncing off of and grabbing a living reef should be gone. But alas, as stated by another poster, i see Mike Nelson imitators on almost every ocean reef dive.
Lots of people on this board will tell you it's only because of poor buoyancy and trim control. I agree thats part of the problem. IMO the larger part is attitude and situational awareness
Attitude ... some people just don't give a sh*t about the reef or what they do to it. Having tried to discuss, in a PC way, reef smashing incidents with several individuals over the years, the response is usually; mind your own business or what's wrong with that? Now i'm far from flaming when it comes to conservation but IMO it just makes sense to stay off living reef. I don't believe we damage the reef just by diving it. We damage the reef by having a bad attitude toward trying to never touch it.
Some people will never get it!
Situational awareness ... most of us fall into this catagory at one time or another. We get so engrossed in our dive and forget where our positioning puts us in relation to the reef and bump goes the reef. Lots of times you might not even be aware you touched the reef. This has happened to me more than once and i have felt terrible each time. You can have perfect buoyancy & trim but lose awareness of where you are in the water column and touch the reef. Having a good attitude is easy for most of us, remaining 100% aware, 100% of the time, while video'g 30 grey reef sharks feeding, or whatever is blowing your mind, is a bit tougher.
All we can do as divers is to strive for good attitudes and situational awareness around living reef. Good buoyancy and trim is necessary in all cases. The good news is IMO most divers do their best to stay off the reef. The 10% dipsh*t rule applies to the rest that don't.
Lots of people on this board will tell you it's only because of poor buoyancy and trim control. I agree thats part of the problem. IMO the larger part is attitude and situational awareness
Attitude ... some people just don't give a sh*t about the reef or what they do to it. Having tried to discuss, in a PC way, reef smashing incidents with several individuals over the years, the response is usually; mind your own business or what's wrong with that? Now i'm far from flaming when it comes to conservation but IMO it just makes sense to stay off living reef. I don't believe we damage the reef just by diving it. We damage the reef by having a bad attitude toward trying to never touch it.
Some people will never get it!
Situational awareness ... most of us fall into this catagory at one time or another. We get so engrossed in our dive and forget where our positioning puts us in relation to the reef and bump goes the reef. Lots of times you might not even be aware you touched the reef. This has happened to me more than once and i have felt terrible each time. You can have perfect buoyancy & trim but lose awareness of where you are in the water column and touch the reef. Having a good attitude is easy for most of us, remaining 100% aware, 100% of the time, while video'g 30 grey reef sharks feeding, or whatever is blowing your mind, is a bit tougher.
All we can do as divers is to strive for good attitudes and situational awareness around living reef. Good buoyancy and trim is necessary in all cases. The good news is IMO most divers do their best to stay off the reef. The 10% dipsh*t rule applies to the rest that don't.
strfsh
Guest
I couldn't answer the poll because there are no coral reefs out here. The rocks didn't get damaged. The kelp is hardy stuff and most of the fish I saw were garibaldi......I think the environment out here is pretty hardy. I was very concerned about the starfish being kicked off the rocks during my first OW dive. Nobody was paying attention to what they were doing. I kept putting them back on the rocks. I was told later they are very harder and fix themselves. Hopefully when I get to dive in troipcal warm waters I will have enough experience not to damage the reef...
A. J. Shark
Guest
I think that everyone at sometime or another has touched the reef and not know it, I know in my OW I hit a coral head and I have seen others do the same thing.
neilstewart
Contributor
Honest confession and lesson.
I was on the outside reef at Ari Beach, Maldives. Had bought myself a vid camera as a christmas treat and this was my first trip away with it. Found a juvenille emperor angelfish in a crevis and started to film it. My arm felt corfortable as I steadied the camera. I thought I was just resting my elbow on a rock as the outside reef has a lot of bleaching and wave action rubble. Then something moved and I took my eye away from camera and found to my terror I had pulled a football sized head of stag coral form the reef that was above my forearm just as it was starting to grow back in that area. I was absolutely distraught. Everytime I dive I consider what happened.
Lesson learned in a very hard way is that no picture is ever worth destruction. jerky video or blurred stills provide far more pleasure knowing you have taken it with the uttmost care than the best shot in the world.
Neil
I was on the outside reef at Ari Beach, Maldives. Had bought myself a vid camera as a christmas treat and this was my first trip away with it. Found a juvenille emperor angelfish in a crevis and started to film it. My arm felt corfortable as I steadied the camera. I thought I was just resting my elbow on a rock as the outside reef has a lot of bleaching and wave action rubble. Then something moved and I took my eye away from camera and found to my terror I had pulled a football sized head of stag coral form the reef that was above my forearm just as it was starting to grow back in that area. I was absolutely distraught. Everytime I dive I consider what happened.
Lesson learned in a very hard way is that no picture is ever worth destruction. jerky video or blurred stills provide far more pleasure knowing you have taken it with the uttmost care than the best shot in the world.
Neil
Kaffphine
Guest
As for the reefs, when I was around them I relyed on the tourism of them for my job. So I'm very protective (esp, Truck Bay) and careful to the point that I have never done any damnage beyond possility unintentionally kicking up some sand.
I'm a little surprise that no one counts the looting of wrecks as damange! Is taking a crow bar or UW torch and forcefully removing part of the dive site not damange? What about stealing a loose plate or bottle? Not to mention the cultural value you're destroying.
I'm very careful, I'd like to think with much succes. The only time that I remember damanging a site was this wreck with some fairly good current. The current's usu pretty good, stiff that day , coming up off the anchor line is truely a last opinion decission. I'm doing a solo dive, and my fins stop working right. My strap had somehow mananged to come completely distacted on one side. I grabbed the fin pretty much at the same time the current was taking it off. I went over to the closest, least covered, large piece of wreck and wedge one knee in pretty well then fixed my problem. I still have iron rust marks on my dry suit, so I'm sure I permentally changed (damnaged) the site. The prospect however of no fins on a solo dive on a wreck with current in my opinion justified removing some rusting iron and any creatures that might be tring to grow there.
I'm a little surprise that no one counts the looting of wrecks as damange! Is taking a crow bar or UW torch and forcefully removing part of the dive site not damange? What about stealing a loose plate or bottle? Not to mention the cultural value you're destroying.
I'm very careful, I'd like to think with much succes. The only time that I remember damanging a site was this wreck with some fairly good current. The current's usu pretty good, stiff that day , coming up off the anchor line is truely a last opinion decission. I'm doing a solo dive, and my fins stop working right. My strap had somehow mananged to come completely distacted on one side. I grabbed the fin pretty much at the same time the current was taking it off. I went over to the closest, least covered, large piece of wreck and wedge one knee in pretty well then fixed my problem. I still have iron rust marks on my dry suit, so I'm sure I permentally changed (damnaged) the site. The prospect however of no fins on a solo dive on a wreck with current in my opinion justified removing some rusting iron and any creatures that might be tring to grow there.
rdbark
Registered
I've just completed three days diving in Ibiza and was surprised to see the people causing the most damage were the Guides. Having only just qualified perhaps my expectations are a bit high. But I was taught not to touch or disturb any of the "wildlife" while diving.
The guides we used were picking up starfish, see urchins, etc and passing them around for people to touch. To be honest it didn't seem to do the creatures any harm but wasn't sure if this was the done thing or not.
The worst thing was that they continually bashed the bottom with their fins and I saw them jet a couple of starfish of ledges while going past. We weren't hovering over Reefs or anything but I would think there's a good chance they damaged something.
I found it just encouraged the rest of the divers in the group to pick things up and trample around the place.
Anyone had any similar experiences?
The guides we used were picking up starfish, see urchins, etc and passing them around for people to touch. To be honest it didn't seem to do the creatures any harm but wasn't sure if this was the done thing or not.
The worst thing was that they continually bashed the bottom with their fins and I saw them jet a couple of starfish of ledges while going past. We weren't hovering over Reefs or anything but I would think there's a good chance they damaged something.
I found it just encouraged the rest of the divers in the group to pick things up and trample around the place.
Anyone had any similar experiences?
JustJules
Contributor
I haven't really seen dive guides that guilty of damaging coral, but I have seen a few instructors that horrified me. The worst was an instructor who took his entire class to the bottom and led them in all standing on the reef. My SO spoke to the instructor on the boat afterwards, and when he didn't seem to see anything wrong with the behavior, he told the instructor's class not to stand on the reef. I'm sure the instructor didn't appreciate it, but if new divers are never told "look but don't touch" they won't ever learn!
I just returned from Cozumel and thought that the "no gloves" rule in place there is a very good idea. I felt kind of naked without my gloves, but I'm sure the rule keeps people mindful of where their hands are...
I just returned from Cozumel and thought that the "no gloves" rule in place there is a very good idea. I felt kind of naked without my gloves, but I'm sure the rule keeps people mindful of where their hands are...
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