Opinion on Snorkel Reef at BHB

[danvolker]

Why ask opinions when this is already a done deal? I do have a question or two.

How much of this is about getting more business into the area for local dive shops and ancillary businesses? How much of this is about an improved marine environment? With complaints about silting and environment degradation now, does this increase the "carrying capacity" of this area for divers, or just bring in more divers?




I used to really like a unique area near Orlando that was out in the boonies, had decent camping, hunting, and fishing, and was off the beaten path. Little did most of us know that the area was also already a "done deal" that just hadn't been implemented yet.

They paved it and called it Disney World. It completely changed that part of the state, and brought in lots of commerce. It has lots to see, but nothing that was there originally.

Very very nice, but very very different.

I guess it's just a matter of what you want.

In this case, the primary "driver" is increasing the quality of the underwater diving experience....with more marine life, with healthier marine life ( from less stress) , from less silting...from less silting....from less silting.....The majority of local businesses have no idea what is going on, and they are not involved in the process. Shana of Pura Vida is also a marine biologist, and while she runs a dive shop, they make their money by running boat trips -- not sending their people to BHB. Pura Vida and Force E and the Hilton and Environmental Resources Management, and the Tourism Development Council would like people to come to Palm Beach from all over the world. If they have any shot at this working in a 5 and 10 year plan, they know that it is critical that they actually increase the quality of the diving at the BHB site now...and this get back to the just mentioned issues like preventing the silting and rototilling behaviors. Boat diving on the offshore reefs and wrecks is really the big push, with serious advertising , but the BHB has already become world famous, and we can't let it degrade. This International Tourism desired does not increase the numbers of people much on the weekend, this is mostly monday through Friday business from people on week long dive vacations. They will have weekdays at the bridge, when the experience is much less crowded. Tourists like this will not use cars, but be shulttled to the BHB.

My Looking Glass view on this? I will be asking for dedicated Dive Class areas that keep classes out of the prime photography areas. Some Dive shops are sensitive to this already and not part of the problem. Others --like I saw today at BHB, are still doing "bottom to surface" drills on top of the hydroid forests of Nudiworld near the west nav channel , and I am hoping that this is just because they are not on scubaboard, and have just not thought about what they are doing....Certainly there will be some shops/instructors, that don't care about the hydroids and nudibranchs or the effect of their massive silt storms on the photographers who have driven anywhere from hours to days to get here. I will be asking for enforcement against this behavior, when it is a pattern of behavior, and clear that they do not have the same interests as the park and most of us.
No one wants Homeland Security at the Park. Right now, it is the opposite, with silting terrorists running wild, and effectively spitting on the photographers and tourists. This is also spitting on the future of the Park..... In an earlier post, I discussed the damage potential as similar to a bunch of crazed motocrossers tearing up a horse pasteur....they don't actually kill the horses by impacts, but they destroy the prime grazing, the grasses become sand and useless for grazing...this is the same at BHB with 100 rototilling students 3 days per week, 50 weeks out of the year.....It can't be allowed to continue.... The sustainability of the resource is obviously threatened by the dive instruction classes, without specific areas that are low impact, and a serious change in the way the first dives are run ( with zero skilled overweighted students taken on a tour over the entire park, often in groups of 10 or more. It is carnage, and that can't continue. The snorkel trail may be good for this, but there will need to be a standard plan.
You, and many dozens of other regulars at the park, are thinking about this all the time, and you must have some solutions of your own for the future...Please share them here.

I see stairs coming west by the bait cleaning station north of the fishing bridge....a good place for students to get in for their first non-skilled dive.
Technically, good for every one diving the west side to get in, as 50 divers standing on the bottom in 4 feet of water off the beach as they do now, creates a massive wall of silt.

I see showers for divers and geare rinse....has to happen,

I want to speak with the major shops and see if they cant mandate frog kick as a required skill for all students training at the BHB. Just like a cave environment, you have no business near the bottom, without being able to use the frog kick...Everyone should know it here, just like EVERYONE in cave diving does. What would be the excuse of a regular to not know it ?