Help me keep diving, or requiem for my love of diving

[W W Meixner]

I have no idea where this post fits, so I'm just putting it here.

I started diving 12 years ago and fell in love with the sport. Diving is a close as I will get to visiting another planet and I have often said that there was no place I’d rather be than underwater with my dive buddy husband exploring marine ecosystems. For us, diving has been mostly about traveling to tropical reefs, plus some kelp dives, but brrrr!

Over the course of our last three trips, however, I have realized that I will not hang up my fins because I get too old to dive (we’re in our 40s and athletic, so that day is not near), but rather because it will become too sad to dive. We saw the Great Barrier reef full of bleached coral, the Florida Keys struggling with stony coral wasting disease, and, last month, the Bahamas so overfished the reefs seemed eerily abandoned and overgrown with algae.

I’ve known academically that the reefs are in trouble—hell, I teach a course on global change--but I had always hoped that things wouldn’t get as bad as predicted. These last trips have been rough though.

I suppose the sport will continue as new divers with new baselines of what is normal are certified. On the boat in Florida last fall where my husband and I were the most experienced divers, the new folks seemed excited by the pretty corals while my husband and I just looked at each other. We have been on trips with older divers and heard them reminisce about how good the diving was in the 70s, but having never seen a change in the reefs, we didn’t really know what we were missing. Now we do. I’m not sure how those divers kept diving after witnessing declines in reef health.

I’m torn between wanting to dive a lot before time runs out and not wanting to spend a lot of money to see dying reefs.I'm wondering how other divers dealing with this? How do you stay positive? Where do you dive that is still healthy?

PC...

Suggest contacting POTUS...who does not believe climate change is a reality...rather...to use his wornout vernacular...'''fake news''...even going as far as divorcing the Paris Climate Accord...

Your above narrative...although heart rendering...is something ''our members are all more than aware of''...the climate ''experts'' have drawn a 19 year line in the sand...after which time...according to them...there is no going back...

Let's all hope...that common sense...which is all too often ''not common'' prevails...

It's sad to think that at some future date...those remaining...living on respirators...will recall the ancient...no longer possible...sport of scuba diving...

W...

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . . And part of the challenge is balancing the time and cost of getting to the Indo-Pacific vs the Caribbean for us. A single trip to the Pacific is easily 2x the cost of diving closer to home and many of our work breaks are not long enough to do so, so this option is only really possible every few years at best. . . .

There are a number of threads discussing Indonesia and the Philippines in which some people expressed surprise at how the cost could in some instances be comparable to a Caribbean dive vacation. It's often pointed out that while the airfare can be expensive, especially for those of us N. Americans not living on the west coast, diving and everything else is cheaper once you're over there. And there are occasionally some amazing airfare deals. I'm far from the most experienced traveler here, but it was a Houston-Singapore-Bali fare on the acclaimed Singapore Airlines for something like $650 that led me to a trip to Bali and Komodo. You're absolutely right about the time aspect, though--it does take a couple more days travel time than the Caribbean.

 

[potato cod]

...The ocean is by no means the only thing changing. It certainly is sad but given the changing planet you cannot curl up and ignore it. If anything this should trigger you to double down on recycling, energy conservation and maybe some ecotourism.

And vote.

I couldn't agree more. I too am a scientist and study changing terrestrial environments. It is more of a creeping change when you see things every day, and I suspect that is why the reef impacts have hit me so hard. And ecotourism is great (I'm heading to the Amazon this summer with other scientists as part of a conference and we'll be staying in locally-owned ecolodges), but the negative impact of the air travel is not lost on me. And I vote, of course.

 

[Chavodel8en]

My 2 cents

Consider yourself lucky and privileged. Frankly, you ARE extremely privileged. So many people on this planet don't have the opportunity to see the underwater world firsthand. Even though we are devastating the earth slowly, it is still beautiful down there. It may be downgrading your pastime, but its RUINING peoples LIVES -- I at least consider myself privileged, and I haven't even seen much of the undersea world (only the Yucatan, Florida, Hawaii, none of the western Pacific)

The problems you point out are real, but I will continue to enjoy the undersea world, and consider myself extremely privileged to do so.

And maybe expand your diving into different environments - temperate kelp forests are an option (although right now, they are also suffering, partially due to climate change).

 

[drrich2]

There is oceanic diving that doesn't focus on coral reefs. Not 'just' wreck diving. California diving, for kelp and other bottom growth and the different fauna from the Caribbean,was a great change of pace for me. Wreck diving with sand tiger sharks out of North Carolina rocks. Although there is 'reef,' I wouldn't call the diving out of Jupiter, FL, 'reef focused,' but goliath grouper, sharks & such count for a lot! I hear good things about the Socorros, and that's not about reef from what I recall reading.

Your 'post-reef' diving adventures could be great.

Richard.

 

[Lorenzoid]

The OP's logic would seem to apply to more ocean ecosystems than just coral reefs. To the OP's point, I think people who have been diving California for decades might say it's not like it was back then. Fewer big fish, less kelp?

 

[TMHeimer]

I've read that divers keep the interest up by adding activities (photography, DPV, etc.), but of course those things don't improve the reefs. Maybe some trips to infrequently visited sites where reefs are still healthy? Probably quite expensive though.

 

[Kimela]

@potato cod - the difference between the Exumas and the Bimini chain is stark. We thought the Exumas were a wasteland and assuntit was all of the Bahamas. Then we dove with the Juliet on the Bimini chain and saw some beautiful diving!

 

[Nasser]

Massive dive tourism has definitely taken its toll on the reefs as well as environmental climate change. I think though that if it's something you love you can start by joining an ecological society as has been mentioned, participating in cleanup dives and awareness programs, improving your skills so as to have minimum impact on the reefs, and diving with a responsible eco friendly operator. Enjoy it while you can.

 

[potato cod]

Yes to all these things: new dive environments and/or activities, focusing on the beauty that is still there and enjoying the privilege I have to see it, getting more involved in restoration/awareness efforts, carefully choosing sites, and enjoying the topside a bit more. And maybe learning to dive in a drysuit this summer would provide a new challenge and open up environments I've been reluctant to explore.

Thanks to all for the encouragement at a time when I am needing it.