I know I am going to get shot down in flames here...
The worst damage to reefs and harassment of wild life I see on dives is caused by photographers. Otherwise good and considerate divers kicking off a piece of table coral trying to get the hundredth shot of a wobbegong that day, shining huge lights at night creatures with highly sensitive eyes for an excessive amount of time, cornering turtles to get another hundred pictures of it’s head when it may well need a breath, fins planted in the reef so as not to miss an opportunity for a good shot in current.... the list is endless. Don’t mention what pigmy seahorses suffer. It was better in the pre-digital times, when they had to pay for film development it was just a couple of shots then move on.
I can understand the achievement of taking a really good picture, but not why recreational divers spend a fortune on heavy and elaborate equipment, drag it half way round the world, spend a lot of their surface time fiddling with it, and miss so much of the diving experience taking shots of animals that they have already photographed 1000 times already. Somebody has always done it better, why not save yourself the hassle, enjoy a relaxed dive and download a few pics from the web.
My gently lifting a rock or sea cucumber with a pointer, to take a quick look underneath,and leaving it in exactly the same place, causes no harm whatsoever.
