How to react to bad diver etiquette (coral poaching/destruction etc)

[TMHeimer]

Entire continents and massively populated countries have not gotten the message yet.

Agree for sure. I also figure that litter and pollution can be the same in some cases. But in many cases litter does very little harm (paper, etc., even cigarette butts maybe) to the environment and is just an eyesore. Pollution on the other hand....
I think we've made a lot of progress regarding litter and some regarding pollution, but maybe we are closer to spinning our wheels re pollution.

 

[boulderjohn]

Back in my days of editing an education journal, I wrote an article about a young woman whose racist Youtube post resulted in her dropping out of UCLA. My article was based on the old adage "birds of a feather flock together." It was obvious to me that this young woman's post, intended to be screamingly funny, reflected the values she had seen by all those she knew growing up and those she knew in her present circle of friends. She had developed a routine everyone thought was funny, and when she published it, she was shocked to discover how much of the world did not share those values.

A number of years ago, the ScubaBoard readers were shocked by the news of a shark slaughter near Mexico. The discussion was quite what you would expect in a diving community.

The details of the killings were fuzzy, and I set out to learn what I could by reading as many news articles as I could find. These articles were in general circulation publications, and most had accompanying discussions. Believe me, those sharks were not getting any love at all in those discussions! "Kill them all!" was the prevailing sentiment. People wondered why any sharks at all were allowed to live. If anyone tried to talk about the important role sharks play in ocean ecology, I didn't see it. I doubt any of the people whose posts I read had the word "ecology" in their use vocabulary. It's very possible that a lot of readers were similarly horrified and, like me, chose not to enter into that frenzy.

I don't know anyone like that, but they are a very large part of the world population, probably far larger than anyone reading this would ever expect, because birds of a feather really do flock together.

 

[diver0008]

Back in my days of editing an education journal, I wrote an article about a young woman whose racist Youtube post resulted in her dropping out of UCLA. My article was based on the old adage "birds of a feather flock together." It was obvious to me that this young woman's post, intended to be screamingly funny, reflected the values she had seen by all those she knew growing up and those she knew in her present circle of friends. She had developed a routine everyone thought was funny, and when she published it, she was shocked to discover how much of the world did not share those values.

A number of years ago, the ScubaBoard readers were shocked by the news of a shark slaughter near Mexico. The discussion was quite what you would expect in a diving community.

The details of the killings were fuzzy, and I set out to learn what I could by reading as many news articles as I could find. These articles were in general circulation publications, and most had accompanying discussions. Believe me, those sharks were not getting any love at all in those discussions! "Kill them all!" was the prevailing sentiment. People wondered why any sharks at all were allowed to live. If anyone tried to talk about the important role sharks play in ocean ecology, I didn't see it. I doubt any of the people whose posts I read had the word "ecology" in their use vocabulary. It's very possible that a lot of readers were similarly horrified and, like me, chose not to enter into that frenzy.

I don't know anyone like that, but they are a very large part of the world population, probably far larger than anyone reading this would ever expect, because birds of a feather really do flock together.

Sometimes it takes more restraint that humanly possible to just live and let live.

 

[Scared Silly]

While diving in an area with lots of swim throughs we had another pair on the boat one of which always had to be first through. Unfortunately their buoyancy was not the best and they tended to silt things up. I mentioned the issue to the boat captain/DM. During the next briefly with a swim through they brought up good buoyancy and to let others go through first if they had that opportunity previously. It it did not register with them as soon as they splashed they went off looking for the opening. The hell with the rest of reef.

As it turned out on the next dive with a swim through I happened to find the opening first. It was hilarious as once they realized I found it they be-lined to the opening. However, I was not going to let them through as I was waiting for my other half to be first for once. They waited but I could tell they were just jonesing to go through. The following day we just skipped the swim through as it was not worth it. I was going to say something to the diver but given it was their last day (but not ours) my other half said to just let it go, so I did.

The diver in question is a SB member. We happened to have communicated before our respective trips upon realizing they were overlapping.

 

[Perryed]

Many years ago I used to enjoy trying to get a puffer fish to inflate. Thought this was very cool. I eventually learned that these fish have only so many blow ups in them and that it really stress them out. I haven`t done this in the past 20 years and if I ever saw it happening would inform the personas to the effects of their actions. Not in a belligerent way, but just as an informative teachable moment. Abut all you can do in any situation.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

But in many cases litter does very little harm (paper, etc., even cigarette butts maybe) to the environment and is just an eyesore.

Wait, what!?!?!?!

 

[TMHeimer]

Wait, what!?!?!?!

OK I'm obviously no expert on what goes into making such man made objects like a Burger King cup that may be tossed out a car window. But I don't think that (or millions of those) damages the environment in any way similar to a farmer spraying acres with pesticides or the plastic "gyre" that spins around in the Pacific.
Just trying to offer some perspective. I think many today get focused on that Burger King cup rather than the big picture, pollution-wise. We as divers always read in magazines about how little the public knows (or seems to care) about the plight of the oceans.
Aside from pollution, how many in the general public know of how the oceans have been overfished for many decades? But, drop that cigarette butt and hey, that's something to be discussed-- gotta tar and feather that guy.

 

[Scared Silly]

OK I'm obviously no expert on what goes into making such man made objects like a Burger King cup that may be tossed out a car window. But I don't think that (or millions of those) damages the environment in any way similar to a farmer spraying acres with pesticides or the plastic "gyre" that spins around in the Pacific..

Huh? Where the !@#$% do you think that Burger King cup ends up ? Those cups are made from EPS foam, it is almost impossible to recycle, and breaks down only to end up in the water.

 

[boulderjohn]

A dive shop for which I used to work had a section of highway for which they regularly picked up trash, so I spent many hours walking along the road picking up débris tossed from cars. We encountered all kinds of things, but we all agreed that, by far, the numerically greatest percentage of what we picked up related to smoking. Cigarette butts and cigarette packages were picked up by the thousands. We even noticed certain dominant brands, although I cannot remember now what they were.

In Colorado, about 14% of the adult population smokes, and about 7% of the teen population smokes. In our small stretch of highway, that tiny percentage of the population is creating the biggest percentage of the litter, and that is just with the smoking habit. Who knows what else they are throwing out?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

OK I'm obviously no expert on what goes into making such man made objects like a Burger King cup that may be tossed out a car window. But I don't think that (or millions of those) damages the environment in any way similar to a farmer spraying acres with pesticides or the plastic "gyre" that spins around in the Pacific.
Just trying to offer some perspective. I think many today get focused on that Burger King cup rather than the big picture, pollution-wise. We as divers always read in magazines about how little the public knows (or seems to care) about the plight of the oceans.
Aside from pollution, how many in the general public know of how the oceans have been overfished for many decades? But, drop that cigarette butt and hey, that's something to be discussed-- gotta tar and feather that guy.

I’m guessing you haven’t looked at how long it takes for cigarettes in saltwater nor how often fish will mistake it for food nor been on a boat in the Mediterranean with a steady stream of cigarette butts.

Then there are all the toxins.Is it as bad or not as other things?Who cares?It is bad for the environment.Isnt that enough?