Maui vs. Caribbean ... Reef Grabbing

[Scuba Monster]

We just got back from Maui and did 18 dives while we were there. All of my experience diving until last week has been in different places throughout the Caribbean. I am not a "fish" according to scubaboard standards, but we do have quite a variety of places we've dived over the past 5 1/2 years and logged a quite a few dives for "vacation divers." In Maui, I noticed many of the divers grabbing the reef, not by accident but just a full on grab of healthy coral, constantly, to do whatever ... stop, look at something, take a photo, pose for one, take a brake from the "current," etc. Also, many divers wore gloves, but they were not necessary. The majority of the divers I observed grabbed hold of healthy coral (not dead) whenever they wanted ... bad, good, and experienced divers.

Just curious ... has anyone else noticed a difference regionally vs. the Caribbean with reef grabbing? Many of the divers I spoke with on the boat were used to cold water diving, hence the gloves. My theory is that it might be the glove thing. Again, we were diving with all kind of levels of dive experience, so I don't think is was the newbie thing.

I've seen this in the Caribbean too, but not this noticable and frequent. A few dive trips ago a guy diving with gloves manhandled a remora off nurse shark that ended up attaching to my leg and wouldn't get off! Many places ban gloves in the Caribbean, such as Cozumel, for the exact reason that they don't want you to be tempted touch and our skin oils potentially kill the reef if you touch it. Anyway, grabbing the reef drives me so crazy when I see it!

 

[Pure Nirvana]

I live on Oahu and see reef grabbers all the time. It drives me crazy to!! I think people need more education about how fragile the reef and aquatic life is.

 

[g1138]

From my understanding there aren't a lot of divers who know just how delicate sea life is. I was fortunate enough to take a class in Corals, Mangroves, and Sea grass ecology, so I know that even a light brush can kill the tiny polyps on a coral structure.
Also, if the coral looks just like the coral in Hanauma Bay in Oahu, I'm pretty sure then that some divers might not even realize that it's coral.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

It's kind of funny; the University of Hawaii released some coral research video to the news stations a few years ago and any time the topic turns to coral conservation that footage turns up. My favorite part is ALL the parts where they use bare hands to handle the coral.

​

I've asked some people who should know and from what I hear most of Hawaii's coral is not as fragile as a lot of other coral. I am in no way condoning even glove wearing in Maui waters, but if you have seen an eagle ray biting muscles of the reef or a reef shark chasing an octopus at night, or a school of feeding adult parrot fish; that's real damage.

​

The Lanai boat I work for strongly requests that divers refrain from making any contact with live coral, in the initial briefing before leaving Lahaina. As guides, we are expected to enforce that policy underwater. Our customers would not think we were doing our jobs if we let divers manhandle the reef. That said, we are not looking at every diver for the entire dive so it probably happens more than we hope. :shocked2:

​

The Molokini boat I worked for used "at least" as strong a language, because Molokini is protected by law. The Oahu dive shop I worked for was adamant about "NO Touching"; I got in trouble for touching my camera down "in between" a couple coral heads (no live coral contact); snitched on by some guests.

​

There is one place off Lanai that "grabbing on" is the way it is done; First Cathedral has an exit named "the shotgun" and over the years a whole bunch of divers have grabbed on to those "hand-holds." There is not very much coral inside the caverns.

 

[Doc]

The great majority of divers who wear gloves in warm water do so because of stinging creatures in the water column, cold, medical conditions, boarding ladders, or protection from critters on mooring lines.

That's their story and they're sticking to it.

 

[String]

That's what i do. I can't see the problem with gloves. It protects hands from sharp rocks, sharp coral, stinging creatures, encrusted shot lines, sharp bits of metal and everything else.

I see no problem with it.

If its real coral damage people want to stop they should ban fins - these cause FAR more damage to coral than hands.

 

[D_B]

gloves are not the problem, it's the people and/or their attitudes that need to be changed about touching.
I am mortified if for some reason that I need to put a finger out to stop myself from drifting into something, and I very much scrutinize it and pick the spot I'm going to touch before I do .. I feel it's a failure on my part and my dive skills

 

[TSandM]

I am mortified if for some reason that I need to put a finger out to stop myself from drifting into something, and I very much scrutinize it and pick the spot I'm going to touch before I do .. I feel it's a failure on my part and my dive skills

If people were taught this from the beginning, we wouldn't have this problem.

 

[cmaha76]

I feel guilty putting a finger down in the sand to steady myself. I've only grabbed coral once (I'm pretty sure I picked a dead piece). My buddy and I were the first off the boat on a site that was not supposed to be a drift dive... current ended up pushing the group through about six marked dive sites.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

When I was in Maui I was appalled at the sight of a dive guide literally pushing a coral head over in order to expose and capture a small octopus so that one of his clients could hold it. Besides the fact that he terrorized the poor octo (which was inking like crazy), he destroyed several decades worth of coral growth just so some kid could "pet" an octopus for about three seconds before he let go of it.

Must be a regional thing ... because everywhere else I've gone diving folks are more interested in preserving their diving environment ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)