OK Heres my rant!!!!

[MauiScubaSteve]

Often, I find the divemasters to be part of the problem, pointing out critters that are impossible to capture without damaging the enviroment. I'll pass on the opportunity only to be asked after the dive why I didn't go after the photo. My one negative comment on Lembeh is the lengths dive masters harrassed critters to "pose" them for photographers.

Photographers are not the problem - divers with poor skills and divers with poor attitudes towards the environment are...

Please elucidate on this a little more.

Are you saying that a guide should not show the group some interesting critters because there is a photographer in the group?

Perhaps the guide "harassed" the critters to limit the damage to the environment?

 

[Nemrod]

We just got back from Wakatobi and as usual there were "photographers" destroying the reefs to get pictures.
My question for you guys is "why does everybody think that they need to be an underwater photographer"? 8 out of ten people on our boat had cameras on every dive. Half of them had lousy bouncy control and the ones that did really didn’t seem to mind if they had to break a sponge or two to get the "great shot". There were a couple of (obviously very experienced) Japanese ladies that would literally lay on the coral or let the current push them against it while taking a pic. I know for a fact that several different Dive Masters saw this but no one ever said a word.
This was not the exception but the norm. With the exception of Cayman Brac Reef Resort, It’s the same almost every place that we have been. What bothers me more than anything else is that no one really seems to mind.
Is it that dive operators are scared that they will chase away customers if they say something? Is the perception that guys and gals with big camera housing must be experienced so they should be left alone? What is it?
Someone pleas enlighten me.

It is not PC to say it but I tend to agree, I see photographers laying, walking, stomping, smashing pulling, holding the reef all the time, every time I dive with a group of them. I cannot say that I have never touched the reef but it is damn rare and I get some pretty decent pics from time to time.

A lot of it is really, most divers today (if it was ever any different) are really poorly trained, over equipped and ignorant of the fact that they, not the other guy, are the ones destroying the reef and killing the very creatures they find so beautiful. It is inexcusable and I have been known to say something about it.

I want to add one thing however, it is not just photographers, are divers completely oblivious to the fact that they may have their heads and arms off the reef but are flailing the c---p out of the reef with their fins because they have no trim/buoyancy skills. Now put a camera in their hands and they are in fact a destructive force and then multiply that by the thousands and it is a wonder there is any reef left anywhere.

N

 

[mjh]

I have stated before and will state it again. It is time we start policing each other, politely as possible. I am growing tired of divers complaining about this but not willing to DO anything about it. End of Rant.

 

[ManusiaLaut]

Interesting communications and comments here. All have good points, especially the comments about DMs not willing to risk loss of a tip by scolding or correcting a photo/video diver's behavior. Most of us who have done liveaboards or lots of guided dives have seen this. What shocks me even more are the DMs who do nothing when one of their divers carves their initials or other such crap into a coral. This has happened at Manta Alley in Raja Ampat and Tulamben during 2010. I highly doubt a diver can spend the time carving away on a living animal without catching the attention of another more respectful diver or DM. As for trash, like Calmday I make it a point to remove trash from the ocean on each dive. No need to search for it as the trash is there. Sad but true. All divers should endeavor to remove something that does not belong in the ocean on each dive. Lead by example.

 

[Nemrod]

I have stated before and will state it again. It is time we start policing each other, politely as possible. I am growing tired of divers complaining about this but not willing to DO anything about it. End of Rant.

I do say something, what would you have me (us) do, pull the Sea Hawk on them, spear them, what? It takes more than one person to raise an environmentally aware diver, it takes a community of divers to say, "stop the ------ and get your a-- off the reef." Oh, I am drinking a bit much tonight, so, forgive me for being direct.

N

 

[mjh]

Nemrod, no offense taken on my part. I think it takes threads just like this. It takes one more person saying "I am not going to let this behavior pass without comment, underwater or on the surface." Better to bring it to their attention underwater.

It is not like I am looking for this behavior, typically I am off on my own with my digital dive buddy. But when I see it and if it is possible to show the offending diver in a manner they will get it then I do. Otherwise it has to wait till the surface interval. Bluntly I just want to put a seed of doubt in the bad actors mind, get them looking over the shoulder. Maybe, just maybe one of them may work on their buoyancy, or think twice before they jam their camera into a sea fan to get a pic of a pygmy seahorse. Just maybe....

 

[WetLens]

Please elucidate on this a little more.

Are you saying that a guide should not show the group some interesting critters because there is a photographer in the group?

Perhaps the guide "harassed" the critters to limit the damage to the environment?

Not sure if you are familiar with guides in Lembeh, but there is a maximum of 4 divers to a guide. In our case, it was typically two divers - both of us photographers.

I never said they should not show the critters. They should respect the critters and quit harrassing them. I would much rather capture the critter in it's natural enviroment than have it poked and prodded to keep it out in the open - and the guides were not poking a prodding them to open spaces away from the reef to protect the reef. Its muck diving.

I understand what others are trying to say about photographers, but the issue is not photography itself - it comes down to the skills of the diver and his/her understanding and respect of the environment.

Guides should respent the environment as well and not encourage photographers - or others - to harass critters or coax them into situations where damage to the environment is inevitable.

 

[highdesert]

We had a woman in our group at Wakatobi who could not keep herself and her point & shoot off of the reef. Eventually, our female dive guide, after politely admonishing this woman several times during dives, grabbed her by the ankle with two hands and physically YANKED her off the reef! I practically spit out my reg and drowned from laughing! Anyway, kudos to the guide for just thinking "tip be damned" and doing what she did. Other DM's and guides could take a lesson.