What I find funny is the mid to later 90's has always been considered the heydey for cave certifications, and we probably had more cave divers than now. Back then we the cornflakes at Ginnie, there was silt on the floor at OG, Peacock didn't have hand prints and fin marks in large conduit passage, the clay in LR didn't have deep gouges etc etc. Many people have pointed out that with the advent of the for profit agencies entering the sport, these problems have grown. No matter who it is,.the caves are suffering from lack of quality of cave divers. I remember the survey I did for a UWS article on cave conservation years ago, and the one common denominator was student's "cave conservation" lecture with entry level training was either nonexistent or barely enough to register for so many agencies. A basic problem is the average duration that people stay in cave diving is 3 years, so they really don't see the damage over time,but the "tourist" caves are really showing a lot of damage.
First off, I really like a lot of what you have commented on in this thread.
You stated the 90's was the heydey, how true is that? Are the numbers going down, is the avg age going up?
To take everything in a self reflecting direction, could the problems be the instructors and or the community as a whole?
IMO, Cave diving is not as glamorous as OW. Not to be rude, but most of the caver divers are not attractive to look at. I can go down to Jupiter and onwards to the Keys, the site seeing and conversations are just better.
I spent almost 2 1/2 years reaching out to IANTD and NSS-CDS instructors. I get Cave diving is serious stuff, but there was really no welcome to cave diving we love to have you feeling. It felt more like you must meet my schedule, we are the Borg and will assimilate you.
I did end up doing my Cavern Course which got in a bundle deal with a NACD/TDI instructor. I did like him, treated more like a mentee.