scubafanatic
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Hello Jimmy! (domino 22)
....so, I see you also just dove 'Hiroshima of the Caribbean' ....... Karen (Nurseshark) and I blew a weekend there this past Valentine's Day, and your experiences mirrored ours. Cozumel has been devastated underwater...........the reefs stripped/scoured clean of sponges/fans, then buried under an infinity of smothering white sand.......fish life essentially nonexistant too, saw a couple of hand fulls of small fish sheltering from the raging currents amid a few barren outcroppings of boulders just high enough off the bottom to avoid a sandy burial.
We did 7 dives over 2 days ( we'd planned 10 dives over 3 days, but our last day got blown out by El Norte ) and for the first time in my life on a dive trip, I was relieved the diving was mercifully cut short.......actually I wanted to come home midway through dive # 5, which was the straw that broke the camel's back as far as I was concerned, and only continued to dive so as to not abandon my dive buddy and to absorb as much info on the true situation in Cozumel while I was there as possible, since I'd already spent the money to be there anyway....... I'd have liked to complete my recon of Cozumel at least............however, thanks to El Norte my 'mission' was cut short.
I won't detail my Cozumel experience here right now, other than to say that Emerald Dolphin Dive Services was the WORST dive operator I've ever experienced, and I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy ! The boat was fine, the tanks were full and the Nitrox mixes were correct/appropriate, the DM/crew operated safely.. (to the point of paranoia) ......but the DM severely restricted our dive times ( 700 psi/45 min 'rules') and I've never been with an operator so obcessed/fanatical about terminating dives early....moreover, he did guided tours over the 'best' of Cozumel's desert wastelands, on dive # 5, as we decended to 70 ft to begin what might have been a half-way promising wall dive, he deliberately immediately pulled us off the wall, swam us head first into a current while swimming 180 degrees away from the wall, we spent the next 40 min skimming the bottom at 50 ft. deep staring as an endless underwater sandy plain until he ran us out of air......... downright criminal ! (this was the dive where I threw in the towel and was ready to return home immediately !
...anyone who know me knows how much I enjoy diving, so if we're in a situation where I'm upset and ready to stop diving, something is VERY seriously wrong !
....I've heard some say there is something left of Cozumel underwater, if you're willing to go deep and to some of the remote sites...........however, most dive ops use AL80's, which will significantly restrict bottom times at depth, so if you want to take a gamble on Cozumel, you should avoid the typical cattleboat/AL80's style operators and go with the experienced diver/ bigger tanks operators who are happy to do the deeper/remote sites........ I've done 2 trips with Liquid Blue Divers (HP steel 100's/120's) with good results, although this was before the 2 hurricanes hit last year.
Honestly, I can't recommend Cozumel as a dive destination any longer....my latest trip was a complete waste of money, that's one reason I've got 3 Flower Gardens trips planned this summer, I think FG will have to fill in for Cozumel for my 'local' blue-water diving trips............ the devastation in Cozumel won't recover in my lifetime, we're looking at decades at least, maybe centuries, and we're not counting the ongoing impact of global-warming on the reef systems either....given the background stresses already on the reefs, last year's hurricanes may have pushed Cozumel into irreversible ecosystem collapse.
Karl
P.S. ...Jimmy, there certainly is quite a contrast between Cozumel now and the Sea-of-Cortez / DON JOSE trip we did together last Nov, isn't it ? like night and day!
....so, I see you also just dove 'Hiroshima of the Caribbean' ....... Karen (Nurseshark) and I blew a weekend there this past Valentine's Day, and your experiences mirrored ours. Cozumel has been devastated underwater...........the reefs stripped/scoured clean of sponges/fans, then buried under an infinity of smothering white sand.......fish life essentially nonexistant too, saw a couple of hand fulls of small fish sheltering from the raging currents amid a few barren outcroppings of boulders just high enough off the bottom to avoid a sandy burial.
We did 7 dives over 2 days ( we'd planned 10 dives over 3 days, but our last day got blown out by El Norte ) and for the first time in my life on a dive trip, I was relieved the diving was mercifully cut short.......actually I wanted to come home midway through dive # 5, which was the straw that broke the camel's back as far as I was concerned, and only continued to dive so as to not abandon my dive buddy and to absorb as much info on the true situation in Cozumel while I was there as possible, since I'd already spent the money to be there anyway....... I'd have liked to complete my recon of Cozumel at least............however, thanks to El Norte my 'mission' was cut short.
I won't detail my Cozumel experience here right now, other than to say that Emerald Dolphin Dive Services was the WORST dive operator I've ever experienced, and I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy ! The boat was fine, the tanks were full and the Nitrox mixes were correct/appropriate, the DM/crew operated safely.. (to the point of paranoia) ......but the DM severely restricted our dive times ( 700 psi/45 min 'rules') and I've never been with an operator so obcessed/fanatical about terminating dives early....moreover, he did guided tours over the 'best' of Cozumel's desert wastelands, on dive # 5, as we decended to 70 ft to begin what might have been a half-way promising wall dive, he deliberately immediately pulled us off the wall, swam us head first into a current while swimming 180 degrees away from the wall, we spent the next 40 min skimming the bottom at 50 ft. deep staring as an endless underwater sandy plain until he ran us out of air......... downright criminal ! (this was the dive where I threw in the towel and was ready to return home immediately !
...anyone who know me knows how much I enjoy diving, so if we're in a situation where I'm upset and ready to stop diving, something is VERY seriously wrong !
....I've heard some say there is something left of Cozumel underwater, if you're willing to go deep and to some of the remote sites...........however, most dive ops use AL80's, which will significantly restrict bottom times at depth, so if you want to take a gamble on Cozumel, you should avoid the typical cattleboat/AL80's style operators and go with the experienced diver/ bigger tanks operators who are happy to do the deeper/remote sites........ I've done 2 trips with Liquid Blue Divers (HP steel 100's/120's) with good results, although this was before the 2 hurricanes hit last year.
Honestly, I can't recommend Cozumel as a dive destination any longer....my latest trip was a complete waste of money, that's one reason I've got 3 Flower Gardens trips planned this summer, I think FG will have to fill in for Cozumel for my 'local' blue-water diving trips............ the devastation in Cozumel won't recover in my lifetime, we're looking at decades at least, maybe centuries, and we're not counting the ongoing impact of global-warming on the reef systems either....given the background stresses already on the reefs, last year's hurricanes may have pushed Cozumel into irreversible ecosystem collapse.
Karl
P.S. ...Jimmy, there certainly is quite a contrast between Cozumel now and the Sea-of-Cortez / DON JOSE trip we did together last Nov, isn't it ? like night and day!
