Possible southern reef closure

[Lewis88]

And there's no way the reef health is going to change in three months so the only thing they are going to be "evaluating" then is the economic consequences of this closure. If divers stay away in droves and it's hurting the dive industry then they will find a reason to re-open them. If divers keep coming and it causes no harm to the dive industry then the closure will be extended and perhaps even expanded north.

I wonder if we will see a huge invasion of lion fish in this area due to lack of divers and hunting.

 

[ReefHound]

I wonder if we will see a huge invasion of lion fish in this area due to lack of divers and hunting.

No, we won't see it because we won't be there.

 

[Shawn C]

And there's no way the reef health is going to change in three months so the only thing they are going to be "evaluating" then is the economic consequences of this closure. If divers stay away in droves and it's hurting the dive industry then they will find a reason to re-open them. If divers keep coming and it causes no harm to the dive industry then the closure will be extended and perhaps even expanded north.

It would be hard to expand the reef closure further north without cutting off the Iberostar. My guess is dive ops would be reluctant to travel south of any closure to pick up divers, take them north to dive, then back south to drop off before going back north again.

 

[ReefHound]

I'm just hoping the advisory council isn't as dumb as they appear to be and that this is really about putting internal pressure on the feds to provide more funding for park patrol.

 

[ReefHound]

It would be hard to expand the reef closure further north without cutting off the Iberostar. My guess is dive ops would be reluctant to travel south of any closure to pick up divers, take them north to dive, then back south to drop off before going back north again.

Iberostar might support that as long as their house ops are allowed to traverse the closed area to the open area. But the council is not going to do anything that hurts the cruise ships because they will find themselves on the losing end of the war.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

No, we won't see it because we won't be there.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it…does that mean its didn't fall? Of course not! Without the pressure of DMs with spears, not only will the hard corals be gone, but most reef fish as well. Then you will have a real desert.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

PS I've never heard nor seen any of our divers spear anything but lion fish. That argument is just from tree huggers

 

[BRT]

And that is precisely why these reefs WILL die. Too many people have this same mindset that climate change is a fraud.

If the issue with the reef is climate change, removing divers and cruise ships will only help if the divers quit using planes and boats and the cruise ships quit running. So Coz could go back to pristine, but you wouldn't get to see it.

 

[Ron Lee]

Norrm, there may be another reason the reefs looked better in 2005 than in later years & that reason was Hurricane Wilma. If you dove before it hit that year things changed rapidly while it stalled over the island destroying things in & above the water.

I don't recall how soon after Wilma I dove again in Cozumel but my recollection was that there were accumulations of coral (soft?) in down current locations where the sea bottom dropped a little. I also saw areas that looked completely barren of anything. Not knowing the reef system 100% I have no idea if coral and sand were obliterated from some of those areas or it was previously sandy and just sand was wiped away. Local divemasters may know which is correct.

 

[ReefHound]

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it…does that mean its didn't fall? Of course not! Without the pressure of DMs with spears, not only will the hard corals be gone, but most reef fish as well. Then you will have a real desert.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

PS I've never heard nor seen any of our divers spear anything but lion fish. That argument is just from tree huggers

I agree, I was just trying to be funny. Everybody loves a funny guy.

 

[BRT]

Calling me names proves nothing. I never, ever claimed to be prefect or anything close, but I damned sure am trying to be better to the world. I know, some people don't care in the least.


While there were some rare mistakes made, there is plenty of good evidence. I don't expect you to accept truth, but I will call you on your lies.


Regardless of how many species vanish? Just don't care huh

Anybody that flies to Cozumel to get on a fossil fuel chugging boat to dive and demands the world stop using fossil fuels is a hypocrite.