Pure Rec Diving

[tursiops]

I never said plants were the majority of life in the ocean just the majority of the plankton and that the plankton make up more then half the life in the ocean.

What you said was 50% of our O2 comes from phytoplankton. That is not the same as plankton making up half the life in the ocean.

 

[boulderjohn]

What you said was 50% of our O2 comes from phytoplankton. That is not the same as plankton making up half the life in the ocean.

I am not sure what is being argued. Perhaps the problem is that he has forgotten oxygen is the by-product of the energy-creating process of photosynthesis. Animals typically use cellular respiration to create energy, which is the direct opposite chemical reaction and results in the creation of carbon dioxide as a by-product. One would expect the living forms that create oxygen would create a heck of a lot more of it than the ones that don't. That comparison tells nothing about their comparative numbers. While I was typing this, I created and and put out into the atmosphere more CO2 than all the plants in the world combined. That does not mean there is more of me than them.

 

[Rich Keller]

What you said was 50% of our O2 comes from phytoplankton. That is not the same as plankton making up half the life in the ocean.

Those are two separate facts and both are true. Go back and read the links I provided. All the information about both facts is there.

 

[Storker]

I just don't get the need to go deeper

Me neither. I'm strictly rec, ain't never gonna dive overhead, whether physical or virtual.

The best diving is within the first 33'

Pretty much dependent on the site and region. Around here, summer diving means algal soup in the top 5-10 meters, so to get decent viz you have to go below the soup layer. Quite often, a lot of the fun stuff is found between 15 and 25 meters (50 to 80 feet), and most of the nice wrecks start at 20-30m (60-100ft) or deeper.

 

[EastEndDiver]

I see a new PADI specialty coming......Plankton Diver .

 

[Rich Keller]

I see a new PADI specialty coming......Plankton Diver .

I am sure you would need to pass the underwater basket weaving course first.

Another shallow water activity would be scallop diving if they are present in your area. I am talking about shallow water bay scallops otherwise known as diver scallops, not the deeper ocean scallops.

 

[TMHeimer]

I am sure you would need to pass the underwater basket weaving course first.

Another shallow water activity would be scallop diving if they are present in your area. I am talking about shallow water bay scallops otherwise known as diver scallops, not the deeper ocean scallops.

Again, depends. Atlantic Deep Sea Scallops (maybe 60-80' in NC or so) can be found in 10' or less in NS, I assume due to the colder water.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I am not sure what is being argued. Perhaps the problem is that he has forgotten oxygen is the by-product of the energy-creating process of photosynthesis. Animals typically use cellular respiration to create energy, which is the direct opposite chemical reaction and results in the creation of carbon dioxide as a by-product. One would expect the living forms that create oxygen would create a heck of a lot more of it than the ones that don't. That comparison tells nothing about their comparative numbers. While I was typing this, I created and and put out into the atmosphere more CO2 than all the plants in the world combined. That does not mean there is more of me than them.

That is not correct. Plants produce CO2 (when they are not engaging in photosynthesis)..

 

[tursiops]

Let's see, this whole sidebar started when I asked where the "fact" came from that 90% of the life in the ocean is in the top 33 feet.
Multiple irrelevant website have been linked to buttress the "fact," but they do not do that. The closest we've come to anything useful is that a large fraction of the phytoplankton are in the top 200m, because that is where the light is. Maybe others like to dive and look at phytoplankton, probably not to 200m, but I'd rather look at other critters!

None of this sidebar takes away from the major point most folks are making: there is nothing wrong, and a lot right, about diving in modest depths, and that tech diving holds a rather different kind of fascination than does reef or muck diving. Also, there are lots of kinds of additional training one can get without going the tech route, although a class like Cavern has a skill set that is really useful for all diving.

 

[Rich Keller]

Let's see, this whole sidebar started when I asked where the "fact" came from that 90% of the life in the ocean is in the top 33 feet.
Multiple irrelevant website have been linked to buttress the "fact," but they do not do that. The closest we've come to anything useful is that a large fraction of the phytoplankton are in the top 200m, because that is where the light is. Maybe others like to dive and look at phytoplankton, probably not to 200m, but I'd rather look at other critters!

None of this sidebar takes away from the major point most folks are making: there is nothing wrong, and a lot right, about diving in modest depths, and that tech diving holds a rather different kind of fascination than does reef or muck diving. Also, there are lots of kinds of additional training one can get without going the tech route, although a class like Cavern has a skill set that is really useful for all diving.

Clearly you did not read what any of the six sites I put up said. They told you what plankton are, how many there are, what they do and where their habitat is. These things are what most people call facts. The irrelevant site was the one you put up about life only on the sea floor.

Back on subject. Why would you push a course like cavern diving on people who do not want it just so they have to buy more equipment they do not need? People like you are what is wrong with the current culture in diving. What is wrong with people taking what they have learned in OW and enjoying shallow dives other then you can not make any money from that? It is bad enough that the training has been dumbed down to the point were almost no one fails an OW course. If they fail OW then they do not buy all that new gear and you can't have that because the money is more important to you then their safety. Then you want to charge them again to learn the rest of what you failed to teach them the first time around. What you now call AOW is what we were taught as part of OW in the early 70s. AOW should really be called OW2, the second half of OW that they have to pay a second time for.