whaleshark09
Guest
I have been reading in the forum about the issue of night diving banned or not allowed in the Galapagos Islands and it is necessary that some points have to be clarified.
The whole idea began as one divemaster that was tired of doing night dives decided to gossip about this a few years ago, this person in those days was involved also in a survey and coordinating activities with the Park Service, then the gossip tactic worked, and suddenly the word was out: ..no night dives...
It was also effective as many people from divemasters to crew members did not want to do a night dive, as it changed the schedules and was basically extra work. So the gossip tactic fitted very well.
It is important to understand that in previous years (when the gossip tactic began) the Park Service was going through a lot of administrative changes, so sometimes it was confusing who to ask for information, and for the just in case scenario both owners of boats and divemasters did not offered night dives.
It is interesting to see how this evolved and eventually NO NIGHT DIVES became the line to add to briefings, but sometimes if some company asked to the Park Service they will answer that it was allowed or that no official policy was decided yet.
I did a night dive in Punta Vicente Roca as late as October 2008, and it was legal in those days to do it. It is one of the best night dives sites in the Galapagos Islands with lots of invertebrates along the wall and macrolife.
There are few sites within the itinerary of a live aboard that can allow a safe night dive in Galapagos and at the same time fit into the travelling times and schedules of the week. As it is so well known currents are strong in many of the classic sites and for a night dive there is the need of a protected cove and at the same time some interesting marine life to see.
At Wolf Island there is the anchorage site, right under the boats the highlight is the red-lipped batfish, it is an interesting night dive.
I tried a few times a night dive at Cousins, good dive, but I will not try it again, as the place is very open, it can have strong currents and the wind can pick up, so recovering the divers can be scary as the wind pushes the dinghy into the rocks, also ending the dive in the current swept area and drifting through the night is not a nice thought. So after we had to live through (survived) the recovery of passengers and with a strong wind pushing the dinghy into the rocks at night, no more tries.
That was my last night dive there.
Then you have Champion Island, great with sea lions and if you drop at the right place the current will keep the wall to the right hand and you end in a protected bay with no current.
The most popular one is Punta Vicente Roca on Isabela Island, really a nice night dive, but very cold for me, anyway it is worth it, and I did it last time.
There are a lot more places and the local dive shops in Puerto Ayora and San Cristobal should know well the ones in their area, but I am not familiar with those sites.
So if the answer they give you is that research has been done that it destroys marine life . You should ask for the research, the journal where it was published, etc.
There is a big difference in the level of research being done throughout the world, the way scientists gauge the level of their work is by publishing in a peer-reviewed journal, where anonymous reviewers criticize their work and make suggestions, so there is some sort of filter and the results of a research can be trusted more and be reliable.
Usually internal technical reports do not go through that process, and in some circles are not considered as reliable as peer-reviewed publications, where all aspects of the methodology used, statistics applied, etc., are analyzed by people you probably do not know and there is a lesser chance of letting unreliable information published.
Divers do have an effect upon the dive sites and very important and well researched work has been published in scientific journals about the topic. I will add some references, the abstracts are open but for the full paper there is the need to contact the authors, some references (Biological Conservation 20 (4): 481-489; dive leader (divemaster) intervention and close supervision is critical to avoid negative interaction with marine life); (other reference Biol Conserv. 79(1): 91-97).
Basically some of these publications confirm something all divemasters should know:
1.-Make a well detailed briefing.
2.-Remark the fact of not touching wildlife.
3.-Good buoyancy control is important.
4.-Keep the loose gauges attached to the BCD.
5.-Be aware of where your fins are (not touching marine life, hopefully).
6.-Keep an eye all the time of where the super-semi-pro or pro-photographer is as he/she will push the limit more to get the award wining picture.
You probably ask why I took all the time to write this comment, well I still like to dive after 32 years, and I know that many people that travels to the Galapagos Islands have saved money for at least a year or 2 before the trip, it is simply not fair to deny a night dive based upon information that was not collected in a scientifically consisted basis or just because one guide is tired that day and had enough dives that week.
Honestly when I worked as a guide there were some nights that I almost paid the other divemaster so HE would go in the water, as yes; I felt cold, and after 4 dives in the day, I really did not wanted to do another dive at night.
However the job of the divemasters there is to go in the water with the passengers and sometimes when we work (in any job) we feel like not going, but we have do, or we find someone to be there so the job gets done.
As the issue of NO NIGHT DIVES was always around that gray area where one week the gossip was: it is banned, then you asked and find out it is not, it became irregular if we did one of not.
There will be some reactions to this comment, and my intention is not to start a controversy, but when something is prohibited it must have good reasons.
Travel agents and visitors can start asking the right questions and see if this NO NIGHT DIVING is real or not, and if it is real, get the reasons clearly explained.
Do not get satisfied with a response like: .scientific research has determined that .., ask in which scientific journal it has been published (a peer-reviewed one please), and if solutions to the effects of divers were researched and proposed.
Hope some of you can enjoy some night dives in the future in the Galapagos, I had one of the best dives of my life at Champion in 1993, full moon night, clear water, bioluminescence, and sea lions swimming to the surface and back, they looked like a space ship with the trail left in the water, really...really cool.
There is definitively an effect every time some careless diver gets in the water, (either day or night) but it can be minimized taking action and doing a good detailed briefing enhancing the importance of taking care of marine life and good supervision by the divemaster.
Does it makes any sense that night diving is not allowed in the few sites that it can safely be done but night diving is allowed to be done during the sea-cucumber fishery by fisher-divers throughout a lot more places, some a few hundred meters away from the very same place where visitors are not?
If the answer it that sites are clasiffied according to the biodiversty, etc. Just dive in some of the places where sea cucumbers are fished and that will answer the question, the macrolife can be as good or better than the visitors site, specially around Isabela's western coastline.
To me it makes no sense to ban night diving, just study the effects and provide solutions.
The whole idea began as one divemaster that was tired of doing night dives decided to gossip about this a few years ago, this person in those days was involved also in a survey and coordinating activities with the Park Service, then the gossip tactic worked, and suddenly the word was out: ..no night dives...
It was also effective as many people from divemasters to crew members did not want to do a night dive, as it changed the schedules and was basically extra work. So the gossip tactic fitted very well.
It is important to understand that in previous years (when the gossip tactic began) the Park Service was going through a lot of administrative changes, so sometimes it was confusing who to ask for information, and for the just in case scenario both owners of boats and divemasters did not offered night dives.
It is interesting to see how this evolved and eventually NO NIGHT DIVES became the line to add to briefings, but sometimes if some company asked to the Park Service they will answer that it was allowed or that no official policy was decided yet.
I did a night dive in Punta Vicente Roca as late as October 2008, and it was legal in those days to do it. It is one of the best night dives sites in the Galapagos Islands with lots of invertebrates along the wall and macrolife.
There are few sites within the itinerary of a live aboard that can allow a safe night dive in Galapagos and at the same time fit into the travelling times and schedules of the week. As it is so well known currents are strong in many of the classic sites and for a night dive there is the need of a protected cove and at the same time some interesting marine life to see.
At Wolf Island there is the anchorage site, right under the boats the highlight is the red-lipped batfish, it is an interesting night dive.
I tried a few times a night dive at Cousins, good dive, but I will not try it again, as the place is very open, it can have strong currents and the wind can pick up, so recovering the divers can be scary as the wind pushes the dinghy into the rocks, also ending the dive in the current swept area and drifting through the night is not a nice thought. So after we had to live through (survived) the recovery of passengers and with a strong wind pushing the dinghy into the rocks at night, no more tries.
That was my last night dive there.
Then you have Champion Island, great with sea lions and if you drop at the right place the current will keep the wall to the right hand and you end in a protected bay with no current.
The most popular one is Punta Vicente Roca on Isabela Island, really a nice night dive, but very cold for me, anyway it is worth it, and I did it last time.
There are a lot more places and the local dive shops in Puerto Ayora and San Cristobal should know well the ones in their area, but I am not familiar with those sites.
So if the answer they give you is that research has been done that it destroys marine life . You should ask for the research, the journal where it was published, etc.
There is a big difference in the level of research being done throughout the world, the way scientists gauge the level of their work is by publishing in a peer-reviewed journal, where anonymous reviewers criticize their work and make suggestions, so there is some sort of filter and the results of a research can be trusted more and be reliable.
Usually internal technical reports do not go through that process, and in some circles are not considered as reliable as peer-reviewed publications, where all aspects of the methodology used, statistics applied, etc., are analyzed by people you probably do not know and there is a lesser chance of letting unreliable information published.
Divers do have an effect upon the dive sites and very important and well researched work has been published in scientific journals about the topic. I will add some references, the abstracts are open but for the full paper there is the need to contact the authors, some references (Biological Conservation 20 (4): 481-489; dive leader (divemaster) intervention and close supervision is critical to avoid negative interaction with marine life); (other reference Biol Conserv. 79(1): 91-97).
Basically some of these publications confirm something all divemasters should know:
1.-Make a well detailed briefing.
2.-Remark the fact of not touching wildlife.
3.-Good buoyancy control is important.
4.-Keep the loose gauges attached to the BCD.
5.-Be aware of where your fins are (not touching marine life, hopefully).
6.-Keep an eye all the time of where the super-semi-pro or pro-photographer is as he/she will push the limit more to get the award wining picture.
You probably ask why I took all the time to write this comment, well I still like to dive after 32 years, and I know that many people that travels to the Galapagos Islands have saved money for at least a year or 2 before the trip, it is simply not fair to deny a night dive based upon information that was not collected in a scientifically consisted basis or just because one guide is tired that day and had enough dives that week.
Honestly when I worked as a guide there were some nights that I almost paid the other divemaster so HE would go in the water, as yes; I felt cold, and after 4 dives in the day, I really did not wanted to do another dive at night.
However the job of the divemasters there is to go in the water with the passengers and sometimes when we work (in any job) we feel like not going, but we have do, or we find someone to be there so the job gets done.
As the issue of NO NIGHT DIVES was always around that gray area where one week the gossip was: it is banned, then you asked and find out it is not, it became irregular if we did one of not.
There will be some reactions to this comment, and my intention is not to start a controversy, but when something is prohibited it must have good reasons.
Travel agents and visitors can start asking the right questions and see if this NO NIGHT DIVING is real or not, and if it is real, get the reasons clearly explained.
Do not get satisfied with a response like: .scientific research has determined that .., ask in which scientific journal it has been published (a peer-reviewed one please), and if solutions to the effects of divers were researched and proposed.
Hope some of you can enjoy some night dives in the future in the Galapagos, I had one of the best dives of my life at Champion in 1993, full moon night, clear water, bioluminescence, and sea lions swimming to the surface and back, they looked like a space ship with the trail left in the water, really...really cool.
There is definitively an effect every time some careless diver gets in the water, (either day or night) but it can be minimized taking action and doing a good detailed briefing enhancing the importance of taking care of marine life and good supervision by the divemaster.
Does it makes any sense that night diving is not allowed in the few sites that it can safely be done but night diving is allowed to be done during the sea-cucumber fishery by fisher-divers throughout a lot more places, some a few hundred meters away from the very same place where visitors are not?
If the answer it that sites are clasiffied according to the biodiversty, etc. Just dive in some of the places where sea cucumbers are fished and that will answer the question, the macrolife can be as good or better than the visitors site, specially around Isabela's western coastline.
To me it makes no sense to ban night diving, just study the effects and provide solutions.
