No Night Diving in Coz??? Aaaaaaargh!

[sharky60]

It does sound like most of this is temporary to give the reef some time to recover. If this is too much for some people, don't go. Just leaves more ocean for the rest of us that love Coz and will accept the new rules, whatever they are, and will just have to adapt.

Remember it has only been a month sence Wilma and ALL recovery will take time and some of it will cause change that we may or may not like, this is no reason to not go, as it has been made very clear over and over they need our money to fully recover and a year or so of moderate inconvienences are no reason to give up on them.

 

[Christi]

It's all temporary first of all.

Whoever said that there aren't many choices left for sites to dive...I beg to differ. Only 4 1/2 (the wreck is part of Chankanaab) of over 30 sites are closed. Las Palmas, Punta Tunich, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Cedral, Delila, Francesa, Palancar gardens, Palancar Horseshoe, Palancar Caves, Palacar Bricks, Columbia, Columbia Deep, Punta Sur, Maracaibo, Chun Chacaab, San Juan, Barracuda, etc. I might also add that you can dive some of these reefs everyday and it won't be the same or you can dive different sections of it and not even realize you are on the same reef.

This is to allow a more rapid recovery to these sites since they were the most severely damaged. The fact that we have had less divers on the reef in the past month and will for the next few months, will also help speed the recovery.

My source is directly from the marine park, from a memo that was sent out to all dive shops. I hadn't seen some of this info in the memo's I have received, so I just called the marine park directly to confirm all of this:

Here is what I was told today at 2:05pm CST

Reefs currently "closed" (time frame not yet determined):
Paradise
Chankanaab
C-53 Wreck (for safety reasons)
Tormentos
Yucab

The recommended reefs are in fact the least damaged, but others are also lovely dives. We have dove Columbia, Columbia Deep, Palancar Bricks, Palancar gardens, Francesa, Cedral, Delila, San Francisco, and Las Palmas so far. All have been really nice dives with tons of marine life.

Camera Use:
A distance of 3 meters must be maintained between the diver and the reef. The divemaster is responsible for making sure his/her divers are respecting this rule and CAN and SHOULD restrict camera use for those who do not have proper buoyancy control or who do not respect the distance rule. It is a big distance for most shots, but hey...it's temporary!

Night dives:
The typical night dive sites are closed, therefore night dives are now limited and restricted. However, sites that are open and suitable for night diving are Villa Blanca (not in the marine park) and Las Palmas. Sites further south are too far most of the time for night diving and currently, considering that there are no hotels open down south, and most likely no other boats doing night dives in the south, I would not take night dives further than las Palmas at this time for safety reasons alone. Again, the 3 meter rule applies, which almost defeats the purpose of a night dive.

 

[parrotheaddiver]

Remember it has only been a month sence Wilma and ALL recovery will take time and some of it will cause change that we may or may not like, this is no reason to not go, as it has been made very clear over and over they need our money to fully recover and a year or so of moderate inconvienences are no reason to give up on them.

DITTO

Now let's go diving

 

[redacted]

It does sound like most of this is temporary to give the reef some time to recover. .

Yes, damage to reefs is only temporary. But in reef terms, that is more than my expected lifetime! Skills and proficiency restrictions to reduce reef damage would be understandable. blanket restrictions on cameras (I'm not a photographer), night dives and many excellent dive site are going too far. Hopefully this is simply an overreaction and will be changed into something that is not overly restrictive and likely to interfere with the economic recovery. I was considering a trip in DEC but will now be looking for more sensible restrictions before I book my next trip.


Perhaps the damage is much more severe than we have been lead to believe.

 

[WicketsMom]

I can understand some of the restrictions being needed to protect the reefs, but wish we had full information earlier. We elected to not postpone our planned trip for Thanksgiving, and come down and support the island as much as we can. However, had I known about the camera and night-diving restrictions while we were still within our window of being able to reschedule without penalty, we would probably have elected to wait a little while.

Not complaining, I think that the recovery has gone incredibly well, and we know that we will be visiting a 'different' Cozumel this time than in times past. But, night-diving is my favorite and I will be greatly disappointed if we're not able to get in at least one. Maybe we can hop over to the mainland and do one at Akumal.

 

[TheRedHead]

It's all temporary first of all.

Whoever said that there aren't many choices left for sites to dive...I beg to differ. Only 4 1/2 (the wreck is part of Chankanaab) of over 30 sites are closed. Las Palmas, Punta Tunich, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Cedral, Delila, Francesa, Palancar gardens, Palancar Horseshoe, Palancar Caves, Palacar Bricks, Columbia, Columbia Deep, Punta Sur, Maracaibo, Chun Chacaab, San Juan, Barracuda, etc. I might also add that you can dive some of these reefs everyday and it won't be the same or you can dive different sections of it and not even realize you are on the same reef.

How temporary? What's the timeline for lifting these restrictions? The gudelines seem to contradict themselves because they say:

Additionally, other popular dive sites such as Islote, Punta Celarain, Maracaibo, Chunchaka’ab, Punta Sur and Columbia have been declared areas of limitted use temporarily...

And then:

The reefs that the Marine Park recommends during the period of recovery are Punta Sur, Columbia, Palancar Caves, La Francesa and Paso de Cedral which were minimally damaged.

It is limited use or is diving encouraged on Columbia and Punta Sur? Maracaibo, Chun Chacaab, San Juan, Barracuda are not dived by very many operators. Is that going to change? Maracaibo is wickedly deep and San Juan and Barracuda are not for the inexperienced. I've never dived Chun Chacaab.

I can't take a good photograph from 10 feet above the reef. Heck, I would have a hard time seeing the reef from 10 feet. I can certainly understand closing some sites which sustained a lot of damage, but why the 10 feet? Are people going to do less damage 10 feet above a reef than 3 feet? Isn't this a bit reactionary?

 

[Christi]

Perhaps the damage is much more severe than we have been lead to believe.

No, it's not...the shallower reefs did take a beating as stated from day one. These reefs still have debris on them and just need a little time to breathe.

I have done 8 dives over the past three days and the diving truly is fabulous! New swim-throughs, bigger swim-throughs, and abundant marine life.

Yessterday alone, we lost count of the turtles, three octopi out in the open at two different sites, two of which appeared to be mating, sharks, eagle rays, more toadfish and scorpionfish than I could count, and visibility is at least 80 feet in most places.

It's not like this is a permanent thing and it's ONLY been a month! I suspect things will be back to normal by January or February.

I really, really wish everyone would stop jumping to conclusions and making this all a bigger deal than it is. Cozumel is making record recovery history and some people just want to dwell on the little things that are really insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Dave Zimmerly]

Do you know how hard it is to spot a splendid toadfish at 10 ft? It's hard to see them at 3 ft.

Oh, and those photos of seahorses everyone loves to see? Well at 10 ft they look like back scatter.

Sure there are alot of reefs that we can dive but at a 10 ft limit I may as well be snorkling (providing I have a snorkel vest...).

So tell me, that and no night dives...why would I go back when their are other places with no restrictions (Bonaire, Roatan, etc.)

Granted, I wish to help in the recovery, but at what cost to my limited time (2-3 weeks a year) of diving?

 

[redacted]

No, it's not...the shallower reefs did take a beating as stated from day one. These reefs still have debris on them and just need a little time to breathe.

I have done 8 dives over the past three days and the diving truly is fabulous! New swim-throughs, bigger swim-throughs, and abundant marine life.
.

I understand. I went down after Emily and saw the effects. Deep reef were fine except finger coral in shallower areas took a beating. Shallow areas like shore dive at Dzul Ha were pretty messed up with sponges & small coral head uprooted but still providing good habitat for lots of life. And no new and highly restrictive Marine Park regulations. What happened this time? Somebody light a fire under the wrong beaurocrats back side?

Las Palmas (did that one palm survive again) and villa blanc are good night dives, or
they were before theses storms anyway. But 10 feet seperation is not the kind of diving I'm looking to do. Please let us know when someone comes to their senses on that one.

 

[RiotNrrd]

Considering I'm flying down there this Saturday to dive for a week, it would have been nice if some clue had been given that they were shutting down sites and imposing rules about night diving. I don't know whether I would have cancelled or not, but now it's pretty late in the game.

Oh, well, I'll keep my fingers crossed, and hope "restricted" and "limited" is not the same as "forbidden." I'll also hope that my two newly OWD certified friends are not going to be sidelined due to their inexperience.

I'll let everyone know when we return if this is no big deal or if it totally stinks.

RiotNrrd