ucfdiver
Contributor
Thanks for the reminders to send in letters. I was able to drop mine off earlier this week.
Given that the current push is for open access to Wakulla, I do not support this proposal. I do not want to see Wakulla become another Blue Grotto, Troy, Royal, Paradise, Devils Den, etc. Open water divers have wrecked every site they've been given access to in Florida, and even cave divers have done things such as chiseled the Whale Bone in Ginnie Springs out, or carving DIC into multiple caves around Florida. Even sites such as Black Lagoon the community has chosen to make them guided to keep people from stealing the shark tooth and other items-- imagine what's going to happen with a mastodon bone! I've always thought that you should treat others things as you treat your own, so pushing for open access to a cave diving site when the CDS requires 100 post full cave dives or to be guided in THEIR caves, shows either a lack of caring or thought.
Wakulla is not clear enough to dive often, as we've seen from how rarely the boat tours run, and therefore will provide little to zero tourism dollars that wouldn't have been spent in High Springs Luraville and Marianna anyways. The real goal here is in no way to drive tourism dollars, as any realistic restrictions will eliminate the vast majority of out of town divers, leaving only those of us who already dive frequently anyways. If we were really trying to increase visitors to the state, we'd open up m2 blue, rose creek, and other sites that aren't insanely deep. Why lie to the state? Why can't we just say that we want to dive Wakulla and not give them a biased research study full of numbers that don't make any sort of sense? I hope the state doesn't hold it against us.
Given that the current push is for open access to Wakulla, I do not support this proposal. I do not want to see Wakulla become another Blue Grotto, Troy, Royal, Paradise, Devils Den, etc. Open water divers have wrecked every site they've been given access to in Florida, and even cave divers have done things such as chiseled the Whale Bone in Ginnie Springs out, or carving DIC into multiple caves around Florida. Even sites such as Black Lagoon the community has chosen to make them guided to keep people from stealing the shark tooth and other items-- imagine what's going to happen with a mastodon bone! I've always thought that you should treat others things as you treat your own, so pushing for open access to a cave diving site when the CDS requires 100 post full cave dives or to be guided in THEIR caves, shows either a lack of caring or thought.
Wakulla is not clear enough to dive often, as we've seen from how rarely the boat tours run, and therefore will provide little to zero tourism dollars that wouldn't have been spent in High Springs Luraville and Marianna anyways. The real goal here is in no way to drive tourism dollars, as any realistic restrictions will eliminate the vast majority of out of town divers, leaving only those of us who already dive frequently anyways. If we were really trying to increase visitors to the state, we'd open up m2 blue, rose creek, and other sites that aren't insanely deep. Why lie to the state? Why can't we just say that we want to dive Wakulla and not give them a biased research study full of numbers that don't make any sort of sense? I hope the state doesn't hold it against us.