Marine Park fee bracelet

[parrothead600]

I have a question regarding the marine Park fee in Cozumel. Two years ago, each diver was given a new bracelet everyday that we were on the boat. This year we dove with a different dive op. None of us were given a bracelet at any time. Have they "done away" with the bracelets and gone with a different system?

 

[ReefHound]

We were there last week of Feb this year and got a new bracelet every day.

 

[jlyle]

Daily bracelets are "required." Give them the benefit of the doubt; they forgot.

You can get a one-year park pass here: Pasaporte para la Conservación CONANP

Only 372 pesos.

 

[Doctor Rig]

Just two hours ago I took a quick look at the Marine Park bracelet to read the fine print. My friend and I have been diving Cozumel since March 7. We received a bracelet the first day of diving and seen none since, despite changing dive ops. The bracelet showed a price of $35 and had a weeks worth of white boxes, which I assumed was one per day of the week.

My takeaway at looking at the bracelet briefly was the bracelet was for a weeks worth of diving, or could be for a week of diving. But we only dived with our first dive op for 4 days and that bracelet had no (day) markings, as I remember. We have not seen a bracelet with our second dive op, but they did mention that we have to pay the daily park fee.

Yes, very confusing! Do some dive ops charge the customer for the bracelet and just keep the fee?

 

[ChuckP]

They either forgot, can't buy them or they're trying to make a few extra bucks per diver.........

 

[Mark IV]

Related side-story here: Years ago, sometime in the mid/late 90's, they started that marine park stuff (just for a while), and made all the instructors and dive masters attend a class at a local school where they basically told us the stuff we all knew by heart, and taught and lived by every day, just so we could get their little ID card, and start charging the divers for a daily bracelet.
Well, sometime while that whole shakedown was still in effect, we were out on a night dive at Paradise. I was dive-mastering, which I normally didn't do too much, but often did for the night dives (same money, but only one tank, and a shorter trip ! )
But, not all the divers had bracelets on. Well, it's right about dusk, and the marine park enforcement boat is there checking all the boats floating over Paradise reef, and they start heading our way. Thinking real quick, I told the divers what was happening, and told them,"when I tell you to, everybody simultaneously hold up their wrist and shake it like you've got a bracelet on, and just laugh and say Hey!"
Well, the guys in the Park boat laughed and waved back, and just assumed every wrist had a bracelet on it, then veered off towards some other boat !!!

 

[GameChanger]

Three different Dive Ops and never seen a bracelet...

 

[ReefHound]

Christi explains in this post and a few others in that thread why you may or may not get an actual bracelet and why it doesn't mean you are getting ripped off as the boats and number of divers are tracked and paid/accounted for anyway.

There are always officials at the entrance to the southern caleta that could be recording which boats and number of divers come and go. Maybe a dive op could cheat a little and report having 52 divers that week instead of the actual 55 but it would seem certain to get caught if they reported significantly less. Who would risk their boat permit (aren't they worth about $50k now?) for chump change?

 

[WetInPortland]

If I recall correctly, @Christi has said that shops are required to report data to CONAP on number of divers, and are handling the park fee administratively without necessarily issuing bracelets. Again, IIRC, CONAP can audit the books of the shop to make certain the correct payments are being made.

There are opportunities for fraud any way you do this (fake bracelets, anyone?). It comes down to balancing the administrative burden while trying to incentivize good behavior and reducing fraud. The lack of bracelets does make it a little more difficult for the individual diver to assess if a shop is in compliance, but how many divers could tell the difference between a real bracelet and a fake one, or would file a complain with CONAP (in Spanish) against a shop suspected of fee evasion?

 

[ChuckP]

Lots of fuzzy math around this subject.

I’d bet not even half the divers any day leave from the marinas - clip board guys count isn’t it, besides, some divers could have marine park cards (working) or marine park passports.

Taking count back in the office and throwing away un used braclets is something an honest shop would do - but then again the honest shop 95% of the time has braclets on the boat. Maybe they were out and had to go to the marine park to buy them or maybe the office forgot.

If you’re not consistently getting bracelets, I would seriously consider the integrity of the shop or boat.