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

[TMHeimer]

OK you guys win. Everything is equally bad. Burger King will have to use reusable cups. I haven't been to the Mediterranean, so I've never seen a steady stream of butts, even on my many visits to the dirty old Hudson River.
Hasn't been my day. I also got blasted on the Clarinet Forum for my opinion on how much mouthpiece to take in.

 

[Bob DBF]

I also got blasted on the Clarinet Forum for my opinion on how much mouthpiece to take in.

I don't know how to ask a question to understand that, may be another time.

Cheers

 

[ginti]

OK you guys win. Everything is equally bad. Burger King will have to use reusable cups. I haven't been to the Mediterranean, so I've never seen a steady stream of butts, even on my many visits to the dirty old Hudson River.
Hasn't been my day. I also got blasted on the Clarinet Forum for my opinion on how much mouthpiece to take in.

Actually I can understand your point of view, but I have no information to say if you are right or wrong. Also, if I understand well, your opinion is based on your personal reasoning. I am pretty much sure there are some scientific studies that quantify the damage of various pollutants, because a scale is necessary to make good policies... but I am not going to look for it

For instance, about human health, I can tell you that in Europe the most dangerous pollutants are the atmospheric ones, followed by noise if I remember well (really). Also, I do not remember anything about garbage. But this was related to human health only!

Here the topic is sea environment, and I would be surprised if garbage doesn't play a key role.

I have no idea if it's worse to touch corals or to throw plastic bottles in the sea. For me, they are both bad etiquette.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

Abut all you can do in any situation.

Oh hell, the country has finally gone full on Canadian.

All this optimism is fine and dandy but until the Japanese stop murdering whales, the Chinese stop eating Pangolin (and whatever poor little creature it was that gave us Covid), and the USA stops leasing our public land to lumber and oil interests, our environment will always play second fiddle to our greed.

As E. B. White said, "I am pessimistic about man's relationship with nature."

Anybody else remember that ad from the 70's of the old Indian crying?

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

I also got blasted on the Clarinet Forum for my opinion on how much mouthpiece to take in.

Just a wee word of advice. Maybe don't paint the images of "blasted" and "how much mouthpiece to take in" in the same sentence.

Otherwise, you're doing great.

 

[ofg-1]

.I also got blasted on the Clarinet Forum for my opinion on how much mouthpiece to take in.

Well, if you are doing a Linda Loveless imitation, its probably too much.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

Well, if you are doing a Linda Loveless imitation, its probably too much.

Linda Lovelace. She wasn't loveless. In fact, one might say her coworkers showered her with love.

 

[Doc Harry]

Bad behavior cannot get corrected unless we all speak up. Boat crews are not going to do anything about bad behavior, because they don't want to get fired. And the owners never support their crew members who try to correct bad behaviors.

If there is a diver on the boat who is having issues with buoyancy and crashing into the reef, then I will directly suggest to them that they should stay further away from the reef until they get their buoyancy under control.

If someone is intentionally behaving badly - like a novice diver with a camera who is crashing into everything, kicking the sponges, and holding onto coral to get photos - then I will have very direct and very stern words with them about their behavior.

Finally - you have to talk with the owner/operators themselves to encourage them to support their crews when they confront clients who behave badly.

I spent 10 days on a liveaboard in Thailand. The dozen Japanese clients on the boat where the worst-behaved divers that I have ever seen. They pulled an octopus out of a hole, broke coral to make an opening for a photo, etc., etc. The boat crew were too frightened of the boat owner to say anything to the Japanese clients. So when we returned to port, I took the boat owner - an American - out to dinner. I had a very serious discussion with him about reef damage, and the need to support his boat crews.

 

[boulderjohn]

 

[TMHeimer]

Actually I can understand your point of view, but I have no information to say if you are right or wrong. Also, if I understand well, your opinion is based on your personal reasoning. I am pretty much sure there are some scientific studies that quantify the damage of various pollutants, because a scale is necessary to make good policies... but I am not going to look for it

For instance, about human health, I can tell you that in Europe the most dangerous pollutants are the atmospheric ones, followed by noise if I remember well (really). Also, I do not remember anything about garbage. But this was related to human health only!

Here the topic is sea environment, and I would be surprised if garbage doesn't play a key role.

I have no idea if it's worse to touch corals or to throw plastic bottles in the sea. For me, they are both bad etiquette.

Agree with all of this. You are correct that my opinion is only based on my personal reasoning. As I mentioned before, I certainly am no expert on pollution and what man made things contain. What is that B.K. cup made of other than some sort of cardboard? I have no idea, maybe some really bad stuff. Like you, I'm not going to look into it.
Pretty much all stuff humans do and produce can in some way harm the environment. There was a philosophical discussion a long while ago on SB where people tried to find something humans did that wasn't at all harmful.
What happens to cardboard when it is recycled? How does the recyclying process itself fare with the environment?
When we lived in the country, like a few people, we had a "burn barrel" for newspapers, Burger King cups, etc. Maybe that's worse than recycling such stuff. Don't know. But it's not as bad as the forest fires now near S.F. I figure they're burning an awful lot of man made items.

Re the mouthpiece quote-- Was wondering after I wrote that if it would garner any innuendo comments! Really a bit of a stretch though. We have mouthpieces on our second stages. Athletes wear tooth guard mouthpieces. But I guess it can be whatever one wants it to be. All in fun.