Human interaction with marine life

[mwn]

This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, and I will enjoy a discussion of the subject here.


There is a dive shop owner in my area that does great trips. The thing is, he always harasses the marine life. When I say harass, I mean he pulls nocturnal creatures out of their daytime cover to show the group. I have seen him struggle with a HUGE lobster in Cozumel, by pulling the lobsters antennae to the point I was afraid he was going to pull the lobsters head off. The lobster was under cover and did not want to come out. I have heard of him pulling eels out of their cover, and have seen him go under coral heads looking for things to grab.

On boats, the DM would tell us in the briefing that gloves were prohibited and they would ask us to leave them on the boat. I don't even own a pair of gloves. But good old Mike ignores the request and just as soon as he gets under, he puts the gloves on and starts touching the marine life.

When I mentioned it to him, he says that it is okay to interact with some types of marine life. I tried to use group peer pressure once, but his students didn't seem to agree with me. It makes for an interesting show, if you don't mind the spectacle of it all.

I have never claimed to be "Super Diver", and perhaps I am a little anal about it, but this just irritates me to no end. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, to the point that I won't go on trips with this guy. Which is my loss.

I have seen his "staff" turning conch shells over and leaving them upside down.

Am I being unreasonable?


If so, what types of marine life is okay to touch\harass and pull out of their cover? Where is the line?

 

[Stryker]

I dont think anyone should "pull something" at all.... I think its ok to maybe "pet" an animal, but to physically grab something will most likely cause stress on the animal.... I think you have to make the interaction as natural as possible.... IF you are going to touch an animal you need to be very gentile and not irritate the animal...

Remember over half the recorded animal incidents are due to the human irritating the animal...

 

[JustinW]

I am all for grabbing lobsters out of their holes, and if you are going to pull the antenae, make sure you grab them at the base, and them measure the bug to make sure he is legal before stuffing him into the game bag and later dipping the tail in garlic butter sauce.

 

[Stryker]

I agree with that as far as lobsters go... but non game animals, you need to be extremely careful with....

 

[drbill]

Although it is certainly my preference that divers do not interact with marine life, I must admit as a videographer that I have on more than one occasion done so to elicit behavior for filming purposes. I justify it by the added educational value when people view my videos.

There is no question that some of my interactions are stressful to the organisms involved. For instance I try to get sheep crabs to "box" with my camera to show defensive behavior. And there was the time I played "matchmaker" and put two sheep crabs together initiating a 15-min. mating bout. That was well worth filming. I think the male was quite pleased, but I can't say the same for the female.

Certainly to interact with animals for strictly "recreational" purposes is not a good idea. I'll leave the judgment on doing it for educational purposes to a jury of my undersea peers.

Dr. Bill


Dr. Bill

 

[MissyP]

I wasn't very happy when my instructor killed an urchin so students could feed the fish.. :shakehead

 

[Stryker]

Dr. Bill, I agree with you fully... I only interact with the animals to learn about how they move and their demeanor... An example would be to tickle a halibut to watch his goofy way of swimming....

We Also have to remember that the more we interact with the marine life, the more we alter their natural behaviors....

 

[ScubaTwo]

This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, and I will enjoy a discussion of the subject here.


There is a dive shop owner in my area that does great trips. The thing is, he always harasses the marine life. When I say harass, I mean he pulls nocturnal creatures out of their daytime cover to show the group. I have seen him struggle with a HUGE lobster in Cozumel, by pulling the lobsters antennae to the point I was afraid he was going to pull the lobsters head off. The lobster was under cover and did not want to come out. I have heard of him pulling eels out of their cover, and have seen him go under coral heads looking for things to grab.

On boats, the DM would tell us in the briefing that gloves were prohibited and they would ask us to leave them on the boat. I don't even own a pair of gloves. But good old Mike ignores the request and just as soon as he gets under, he puts the gloves on and starts touching the marine life.

When I mentioned it to him, he says that it is okay to interact with some types of marine life. I tried to use group peer pressure once, but his students didn't seem to agree with me. It makes for an interesting show, if you don't mind the spectacle of it all.

I have never claimed to be "Super Diver", and perhaps I am a little anal about it, but this just irritates me to no end. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, to the point that I won't go on trips with this guy. Which is my loss.

I have seen his "staff" turning conch shells over and leaving them upside down.

Am I being unreasonable?


If so, what types of marine life is okay to touch\harass and pull out of their cover? Where is the line?

Your not being unreasonable. Im sure not to many ppl would approve of being torn from their homes while they are sleeping just so some ppl can "learn" from them.

 

[baitedstorm]

I think you have a valid complaint. I like to make every dive enjoyable for whomever is out on the boat with us, but not at the expense of the wildlife. I've seen it too many times, a DM/Instructor grabbing a puffer fish, just to make him blow up and dazzel their students. This causes a great amount of stress on these fish, some of them even die. Of course, when the fish strikes back and lets say, bite the end of the pinky of one reckless Instructor/dive shop owner, it does tend to be funny. I stress on my dive briefing the safety issues of touching the fish we are so lucky to be sharing territory with, and should a diver injury one of my friends, we will probably have a problem...

I'm totally right there with you! If your not hunting it for food, don't stress the sea life out for your own amusement!

 

[Diver0001]

This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, and I will enjoy a discussion of the subject here.

I make an effort not to "harrass" anything and I'll intervene when I see others doing it but I will admit to picking up certain creatures to pass around the group. With any size of group and a bit of current an muddy bottoms it's hard for them to see some things otherwise. For example, the spider crabs we have here are very well camouflaged and most people can't spot them at first, even when you point at them. For some people it takes seeing it walk on their hand to realize it's an animal at all...

I'll also try to coax shrimps to walk on my gloves or to see if I can get a lobster to poke his head out for the group but I do this without touching them. I figure if you want to show clients nocternal animals like lobsters then you need to dive at night, which is what I do when people specifically ask to see certain things.

R..