"Observations show an average 260 touches per one hour dive for a party of four."

[The Chairman]

Hey guys, let's stay friends. No need for Reef Wars here on SB.

Clearly requiring someone to stay 10 ft above the reef would be impossible to enforce and you don't need to dive that way. Good situational awareness and an openness to learning about the eco system. I'll never forget the day I happened upon a conch shell that had exploded. Three feet away, I saw the anchor that killed it. I've also seen a nurse shark break the head off of a reef and knock over a barrel sponge. Turtles and parrot fish gnaw on the reef all day and any hurricane can wipe out the shallow and soft corals over night. Clearly, there is more natural damage being done to the reef without our help.

That doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't minimize our impact on the reef. Indeed, we can and we should, even before we splash. I've made a concentrated effort to reduce, repair and repurpose over the last few years. Especially plastics. I refuse to buy bottled water and am trying to figure out how to do even more. I'm not going to shame others for what they do, I'm just trying to reduce my personal footprint.

Most peak performance buoyancy classes are horrible. Beyond horrible. When my son died I cancelled one of my Trim, buoyancy and propulsion workshops. I referred them to a local shop: one I trusted. Whereas most of my students will reduce their weight by a significant amount, they started by adding another 6 to each. Sheeesh! I heard all about the horror show when I taught them for free. You'll never find me suggesting a PPB class, but you will read me suggesting a cavern course over and over. OK, you don't want to dive caves. However a competent cavern class will teach you all about trim, buoyancy, trim and situational awareness.

 

[The Chairman]

Cozumel is probably the #1 destination for new divers.

They and the Keys are neck and neck. Lots of great diving in the Keys.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

And I disagree. Cozumel is probably the #1 destination for new divers. Require an additional specialty card they don't have and it can be #51. But the real hit will be the experienced divers with hundreds of dives whose days of taking classes alongside brand new divers are long ago. I'm curious what the veterans here like Dandy Don and Gordon think. Guys with 1000 dives who have been diving Cozumel for 20 years suddenly being told they aren't qualified to dive in Cozumel until they take a class.

And again, will you answer the question as to whether you really think divers are the cause of the reef destruction and keeping divers off the reef will restore reefs to "pristine" condition. I think you're making up a hypothetical without any basis then proposing a "solution" based upon it.

I’ve seen many so called veteran divers with seriously crappy skills.
Just because they’ve been at it a long time doesn’t mean they have good spacial awareness or don’t rototill.
Imagine a china shop filled with water. Could you make your way through and look at everything without knocking anything over?
And no, having better divers won’t cure everything wrong with the current condition and the plight of delicate reefs, but no rules or regulations is just completely giving up and saying screw it. Requiring divers to good enough skills wise and to be respectful of the environment to be able to dive some of the more endangered and delicate reefs is better than doing nothing and perpetuating a free for all.
Maybe the cattle drives need to be re-examined.

 

[ReefHound]

I’ve seen many so called veteran divers with seriously crappy skills.

I've seen even more divers with "specialty cards" with seriously crappy skills. Go on a Cozumel dive and tell me which divers have a "boat diver" specialty or a "drift diver" specialty. The card doesn't make the diver. Unless it's something like cave.

Before your proposal, I mentioned that divers need "education" not punishment. I'm clearly not opposed to education. An annual marine park tag requiring a brief orientation, as with Bonaire, would probably fly. Or having the DMs focus a bit more on reef etiquette. But anything that requires a diver to take classes in advance or waste precious vacation time isn't going to fly.

But one issue Cozumel will have with any such program is they are a destination where people arrive and leave any day of the week and stay for a variable number of nights. It makes it much harder to schedule introductory dives than places that are typically 7-night destinations with arrivals predominantly on the weekend. You rarely find that Wednesday to Tuesday diver somewhere like AKR in Roatan where it's much easier for them to schedule a checkout dive Sunday morning because a whole new batch of divers arrived Saturday.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I've seen even more divers with "specialty cards" with seriously crappy skills. Go on a Cozumel dive and tell me which divers have a "boat diver" specialty or a "drift diver" specialty. The card doesn't make the diver. Unless it's something like cave.

Before your proposal, I mentioned that divers need "education" not punishment. I'm clearly not opposed to education. An annual marine park tag requiring a brief orientation, as with Bonaire, would probably fly. Or having the DMs focus a bit more on reef etiquette. But anything that requires a diver to take classes in advance or waste precious vacation time isn't going to fly.

But one issue Cozumel will have with any such program is they are a destination where people arrive and leave any day of the week and stay for a variable number of nights. It makes it much harder to schedule introductory dives than places that are typically 7-night destinations with arrivals predominantly on the weekend. You rarely find that Wednesday to Tuesday diver somewhere like AKR in Roatan where it's much easier for them to schedule a checkout dive Sunday morning because a whole new batch of divers arrived Saturday.

Well at least you agree with education.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Before your proposal, I mentioned that divers need "education" not punishment. I'm clearly not opposed to education. An annual marine park tag requiring a brief orientation, as with Bonaire, would probably fly. Or having the DMs focus a bit more on reef etiquette. But anything that requires a diver to take classes in advance or waste precious vacation time isn't going to fly.

Education and an orientation, cool!
Ok, so the orientation begins with a brief lecture on the fragility of the reefs and how delicate they are blah blah blah. Then the educator begins to go into how you will need to practice excellent buoyancy skills to hover and stay above the reef and keep your fins up, secure your consoles and danglies so they don't swing around and smash stuff, how photographers need to behave, etc.
A few divers raise their hands and mention they were never taught any of these skills and aren’t the greatest at it, plus they’re using rental gear.
So, what do we do with this?

One thing builds on another and they all go hand in hand. This is why I don’t think just education is enough, there needs to be physical skills also.

 

[BRT]

There should be a sensitive reef specialty and card.
The specialty should include PPB, underwater naturalist (tailored to the particular environment), no dangle gear reconfiguration, and no silting finning technique.
If people don’t have this training and present the card they aren’t allowed to dive on the reef. It may not be perfect but it’s a step in the right direction.
Just like OW card, no card no dive...for whatever level the dive requires.
If a DM observes someone being a destructive idiot they’re benched for rest of the trip. And if you are a total ass causing mega destruction you get a fine, just like if you’re caught off trail in a park causing destruction.
It’s amazing how people will straighten out if there’s money and fines involved.

There wouldn't be enough divers out there to keep a gear manufacturer alive. I for one, would give it up.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

There wouldn't be enough divers out there to keep a gear manufacturer alive. I for one, would give it up.

That's what checkout dives are for. I agree that the idea of this card is ridiculous. Maybe the agencies with subjective standards can clean up their act with objective standards and remedial training for existing instructors when needed.

It'll never happen. Hence checkout dives. Don't pass the test? Don't dive there.

 

[BRT]

That's what checkout dives are for. I agree that the idea of this card is ridiculous. Maybe the agencies with subjective standards can clean up their act with objective standards and remedial training for existing instructors when needed.

It'll never happen. Hence checkout dives. Don't pass the test? Don't dive there.

If you think everybody in Cozumel doesn't do a checkout dive you were asleep your first dive with each operator. No need to bang against stuff, but the DM's and Operators in places like Cozumel know that storms , turtles and parrotfish do much more reef damage than all the divers ever could. This coral bleaching has nothing to do with divers.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

If you think everybody in Cozumel doesn't do a checkout dive you were asleep your first dive with each operator.

Interesting.... that was some wicket current on my checkout dive! I have only spent one day on Coz - there wasn't a checkout dive, sorry.