How NOT to dive Monad Shoal in Malapascua. Is a Thresher sighting worth the damage?

[Zef]

Sandy bottom does not equate to lifeless! Take a good look if you have the opportunity in your next dive. And you might be surprised. The black sandy bottom in Lembeh seems devoid of life to the untrained/casual eyes.
Every diver/person is responsible to his/her action but some of them are beyond hope!

Yes I understand that a sandy bottom does not mean devoid of life....but when was the last time you walked through the grass in your backyard with any notion of concern for where and what you were stepping on. In the water its a big deal but out of the water its not a consideration? Where is the line drawn?

-Z

 

[Centrals]

You drawn your own line.
In scuba diving there is no need to touch anything if you can master your buoyancy as well as the propulsion technique!

 

[Zef]

You drawn your own line.
In scuba diving there is no need to touch anything if you can master your buoyancy as well as the propulsion technique!

But that in itself is drawing a line. While it may be true, the problem with this is that some divers act as if it is a part of a rigid value system. The issue I am pointing to is that "value system" is not comprehensive and only takes into consideration those things that are convenient to consider. For instance, I believe there is no reason to touch anything in the water...typically, and I know divers who preach this too, but then put a camera in a housing in their hands and when they want to get that stellar photo will grab on to rock, coral, lie on the bottom, what-have-you....and then when called on this they will rationalize their actions in an attempt to justify it.

Preaching/demanding that folks should use buoyancy to stay off the bottom only works among folks with good buoyancy. Not enough instructors teach proper buoyancy and trim from the outset of training. Some do, but most do not. A diver with crappy buoyancy control goes on vacation to a site like Malapascua/Monad Shoal, the guides are not there to teach proper buoyancy. They have some choices...they can decide not take people on that dive and risk losing their revenue stream, they can insist on advanced certifications before taking divers on certain dives, but we know that a c-card does not equate to experience or developed skill set, they can dive in a way that sets a good example which is great but if the divers they are guiding don't care then the impact of their example is marginalized, or they can reduce damage to areas that are more prone to damage/destruction by taking their divers to an area least impacted by their presence on the bottom.

-Z

 

[Centrals]

Nothing is perfect.
You drawn your own line and live with it.
Scuba diving is an recreational sport and there is NO police to regulate diver's behaviour/mis-behavior.
Heavy penalty on driving never deter dangerous driving.

 

[eagerbeaver]

Of course no one is perfect, but the community here has tried to adopt "rules" to help the fact that we are invading the space of the marine life. So people can at least TRY and follow them, rather than just completely ignore them just for a cool photo.

 

[bill22]

As someone who has been visiting Malapascua since 2007 this was an interesting thread to read. I'd missed it before. Also interesting to see it resurrected again. Knowing the folks at Evolution I'm not surprised they were the ones who started this whole discussion over 7 years ago. A lot of good points were made. I've also personally observed a lot of this and for some people it can be frustrating. As Centrals pointed out, we draw our line and we live with it. As Matt point's out there is nothing wrong with having standards, having a mark to shoot for, and always trying to improve. Just my 2 pesos worth

 

[eagerbeaver]

Thanks to a lot of people involved we now have this etiquette infographic in a variety of languages to help dive staff explain to the guests how we can minimize our impact on the environment and the sharks behaviour.