Is diving in the Caribbean dying?

[Charlie59]

Just back from Cayman Brac and while the folks at Reef Divers were great, I was taken by the fact that the wonderful walls were not filled with impressive numbers of fish. Whether it is the lion fish or the warming of the water, I have been noticing a decrease in the fish populations in places I dive in the Caribbean including Cozumel and Roatan. This seems to be less obvious in the Pacific, but because I live in Texas, I am in the Caribbean more often. In Hawaii, my favorite dive operations have decreased their boat numbers by half (Ed Robinson's now dives one boat instead of two).

Is this real and what does it say about the future of the sport that I enjoy so much. Does anyone else feel the same way?

 

[oly5050user]

I am on the brac right now and thought the same thing. I compared brac to Bonaire and prefer Bonaire for type and amount of life there.

 

[scoobydrew]

I think you would be hard pushed to find anywhere in the world that has diving as good as it was 15 years ago. Anywhere you go you can see the effect of ocean acidification, over fishing, pollution, or just simply put the effect of sharing the planet with the human race.

Is it affecting the dive industry? I don't think so, not yet anyway. I work on Grand Cayman, all our guests who were here 15 years ago say it was much better then. In the year and a half I have been here I have only seen dive centres expand, buying new boats, new vehicles, hiring more staff etc. I have not yet seen any of the vast number of dive businesses here go under, in short the dive business here is healthier than anywhere else I have ever worked.

I'm sure if you met someone who dived Bonaire 15 years ago they'd say it was much better then too.

 

[diver 85]

Like most other things------'you should have been there 25 years ago'.........Maybe so, but there's nothing they you or I can do about----can not like 'does your vote really count?', when was the last time you voted in an election & 'your guy' lost by 1------now, did that vote you last made REALLY make a difference......?????

 

[rhwestfall]

I dove San Salavdor (Bahamas) in 1989, which was about the time where many of the covers of Skin Diver were being shot by Frink there. From what I have heard, the walls resemble none of that now, and the fish populations and species have significantly changed....

I also dove Bonaire in 1996, and reading here, it sounds as if it is well below what I experienced then....

Our impacts as well as mother nature have likely altered things. I hope the day I get to return to any of these places, my experiences will match my memories and expectations....



Even here in my home waters, things have significantly changed. We are loosing many wrecks to becoming buried in silt.....

 

[Rhone Man]

It's funny, my feeling has always been the converse. I think back to when I started diving in the Caribbean in the early 80s and then when I got back into it seriously in the late "noughties" and I thought both coral and fish life was much better. Certainly way more lobster that was for sure. Maybe these things are just a little cyclical. Of course it may also be that because I am older and more experienced I can now dive the deeper and more untouched sites.

 

[drbill]

I've dived for over 50 years now. In most respects I think things are much worse today in my local waters than they were back in the 60s and 70s. Many factors at play. Although I enjoy diving in the Caribbean, it does not compare with Asia and the Pacific. Much higher species diversity in those regions. Unfortunately I had a fear of flying for 22 years and never dove distant destinations due to that (and budget) so I can't compare the Asian and Pacific destinations with times before about 2000.

 

[scubadada]

I've been diving the Caribbean continuously since 1997 but have not been back to many places enough times to make comparisons over time. When I think of fish life I think of numbers, diversity, and size. I have made 10 trips to Grand Cayman since 1997 and the fish life in the West and the North most definitely declined. I switched to the East several years ago and there was a significant improvement. I have only made 3 trips to Bonaire since 2004 but a noticeable decline was also evident.

I have only been to Little Cayman twice in 2010 and 2014. It was my definite impression that there were less fish in 2014. My wife, only visiting Little Cayman in 2014 asked me one day, "where are all the fish?" She commented that the walls were really lush and beautiful but missed the fish populations we have become very accustomed to on our home reef of Boynton Beach, Florida. I've become spoiled seeing the numbers, diversity, and size of the fish. In my log book I often just write, "usual reef fish", meaning all the most common reef fish of the Caribbean. I consider myself very lucky. It makes me sad to think of what is happening all over the Caribbean.

 

[Nemrod]

When we dove Cozumel several times in the 80 and 90, early 80s in particular, I remember distinctly developing my film to see beautiful reefs and absolutely no fish. So, I never really wanted to go back and got talked into it a few years ago. I actually have fish in my photos now.

But, Cayman, definitely noticed a reduction in fish, I guess they all moved to Florida East Coast. I have always thought, wanna see fish, go to Florida, wanna see big coral, go to the Carib.

N

 

[descent]

Last summer, a fisherman off of Huntington Beach in SoCal caught a wahoo. None had been caught north of Cabo San Lucas since the thirties.

In British Columbia, fisherman are starting to see Mola mola, the giant ocean sunfish.

At the mouth of the Copper River, in Alaska, fishermen are catching skipjack tuna.

Thousands and thousands of California sea lions have appeared in estuaries in Oregon and Washington, while huge numbers of abandoned pups starve to death on beaches around Monterey and San Francisco.

Things are changing, for sure.