Jo Swiecicka:
I'm interested in responsible tourism, which tries to respect local communities and cultures as well as the environment of the places we visit. Does anyone think divers know or care about these issues? Anyone know of any dive operators that work with a responsible tourism approach?
Fill out your profile, Jo, you have asked some unusual questions uin various posts. Are you planning the "ultimate" resort or just writing for SDM?
I think a lot of divers (and certainly in the general poulation even a greater percentage) do not undrestand their impact on the system.
We could all do very well by
carrying home all batteries as well as spent Czyalume Sticks. When we pack for vacation, strip away
all of the packaging from
any object. Why throw the packaging away in paradise when you can send it to (theoretical) proper waste treatment back home?
Remember: when a provider does the ecologically correct thing, you wind up paying for it in your trip price. Very few systems are cost effective, not even here in the USA, much less in the Caribbean.
I was at a commercial Caribbean dock when one lady remarked at how impressed she was that they were recycling metal, using empty containers to haul it back to the USA. In fact, they head out to sea at some 3000 foot deep spot and tip them upended and return with an empty container within the day. Image, perception.
Success breeds destruction. Every blade of grass that is tilled, and then turned into a gravel road destroys the offshore and downstream reefs quicketr than you can say Georgeown.
Most dive ops do not allow anything to be put into the water, biodegradable or not. They are in direct competition with resorts that have DM's that feed the fish for the amusement of the vacationers. Arguably, it is one thing to tease an elusive critter like a Toadfish out from it's hidey-hole with a bit of food, but another to provide wholesale chow for a feeding frenzy of Sgt Majors... or is it? Why is the latter example any differentthan chumming for a Shark rodeo? Or, for that matter, a captive Dolphin programme?
Yet people here constantly ask if these types of interaction are available at a set time and fee.
I want to dive with Johnny Knoxville and his swim trunks filled with frozen Shrimp with the Whale Sharks. Or is that destructive.
Our mere visit causes this destruction, no matter how "eco-sensitive" a resort is perieved.
Go and see it now. It will be gone soon. For every green tree hugging operator there is out there soon will follow fifty more that wont even put on a front.
In the Caribbean? Go see Guanaja, Utila, parts of Roatan, Cayos, Cisne, Corn, san Andres, Los Roques, Tobago, Grenada, and a few others.
