Sunset House goes 100% NON-Smoking.

[caymaniac]

Most people would agree that reefs should be protected from contact with divers. Most reef damage is caused inadvertantly or carelessly by divers with inadequate buoyancy skills than by divers who want to handle the coral. I'd venture to say that far more damage is caused by people carrying cameras than by people wearing gloves but, for obvious reasons, no one advocates the banning of cameras or the certification of photographers. The no-glove laws in Cayman and elsewhere are largely symbolic of a low cost display of eco-friendliness

I believe there is more damage done to the reef by pollution that from divers touching the reef. Why do you think that there has been a controversy about all the realestate developement in South Florida? What happens to all that grey water when it leaches out to the ocean? I would say that this problem is what south Florida really faces, in comparison the divers don't even register on the scale. I don't mind diving without gloves and I use a camera, I agree that there are divers that should be banned until they learn good bouancy skills, but to say that divers cause the most damage to the reef is ludicrous.
Have you ever dove the west side of Grand Cayman? I first went to Grand Cayman in 1980, the west reefs were beautiful, with all the pollution caused by all the building and sewage it's no wonder that the reefs look trashed and this is not hurricane damage. The reef can just take so much pollution and then disease sets in.

 

[Alex777]

And another culprit, IMHO, is global warming. I have measured water temps as high as 90 degrees at 100'! Coral begins to die at temps above 86 degrees.

<< This is like the "Bush" theory of dive regulations...let us tell you what to do, what to wear and how to act, and either you are with us, or you're "with the terrorists" >>

Although I don't wish to enter the gloves / no gloves debate, I find it both ironic and refreshing that the Cayman Islands Govnt. is here being accused of OVER-REGULATION. At endless financial services sector conferences, in countless USA editorials, political speeches, and magazine articles, the charge is: woeful under-regulation in the banking & financial services industries, to the detriment of our friends to the North. We must try to do more of this ...

 

[cowboyneal]

hahaa...good one...

 

[MikeFerrara]

The bottom line is that it is the law in Cayman - if you cannot respect that (however much you may disagree with it) don't come here.

Works for me.

 

[MikeFerrara]

It's up to instructors & divemasters to point out to their clients that they don't need gloves (when they truly don't) and encourage to them to use less lead. When ever I take a group to a WARM water destination I encourage them to do a weight check and then challenge them to see if they can use less weight by the end of the trip than they started with....as far as the glove issue, I took care of that dinosaur years ago.

as has been said many times....If you think you know everything then you most assuredly don't. We ALL have room for improvement.

A dive master should provide information about conditions but it should be up to the diver to decide what equipment makes sense for those conditions.

It makes sense for a lot of people to wear gloves even in warm water. Being in the water softens skin and one can tear their skin open just climbing the ladder after the dive.

They want to let everyone dive because that's where the money is so they come up with stupid rules as a patch that they apply to everyone. Doc it hurts when I do that...well don't do that. LOL, they don't teach buoyancy control because they say it takes too long but then someone is going to whine because you have divers doing nose dives into the reef. As my daughter would say "Well duh".

The no gloves rules fail the simplest of logic tests. We go out of our way to put unskilled divers on the reef and then we want to punish them by allowing them to injur their hands. You protect reef by staying out of it. You protect your hands by covering them up. If you are good you can do both and still get good results. If you're not good, the results won't be good no matter what you do.

 

[caymaniac]

And another culprit, IMHO, is global warming. I have measured water temps as high as 90 degrees at 100'! Coral begins to die at temps above 86 degrees.

When I was in Papau New Guinea two summers ago, the water temp was mostly 90F and there were a couple of dives logged at 86F. It wasn't just my temp. gauge either, it was consensus on the boat and it led to discussions about about the warm water. There were more fields of hard coral that were in magnificent shape than I've ever seen.
How come all the coral isn't dead in the South Pacific if corals die starting at 86F?

 

[Alex777]

Well, it's a good question and I don't claim to have the answer.

I assume that, to kill coral, the water needs to be consistently above 86 degrees for some minimum period of time. Perhaps in PNG it wasn't warm enough for long enough?

 

[caymaniac]

Well, it's a good question and I don't claim to have the answer.

I assume that, to kill coral, the water needs to be consistently above 86 degrees for some minimum period of time. Perhaps in PNG it wasn't warm enough for long enough?

I did a search on the Bismark Sea. Other divers have reported (diving different years) that the water temp. is a constant 86 to 90F. That shoots down your theory or guess that coral will die at 86F

 

[Alex777]

Having googled the topic and read a bit, my current impression is that coral bleaching & death will occur when the water temp is above the traditional maximum for that particular location, over a period of time. So, 86 degrees is not a magic number but may be the right number for the Cayman Is. Also, there are other factors:

"Coral bleaching has increased over the last two decades. Most of the major bleaching events of the 1980s and 1990s have been linked to elevated water temperatures. However, warmer water alone may not cause bleaching events. Other factors&#8212;such as low winds and very sunny days&#8212;may amplify the thermal stress. A variety of other environmental stresses&#8212;such as disease, excess shade, increased levels of ultraviolet radiation, sedimentation, pollution, and salinity changes&#8212;may also play a role."

http://www.exploratorium.edu/climate/biosphere/data3.html

 

[Drew Sailbum]

It may be a combination of warmer water and disease.

From the most recent Cayman Observer:

http://www.caymanobserver.com/viewarticle.cfm?id=2&Section=CoverStories

According to the DoE, hard coral cover has declined by 50% in the last 10 years, much of it due to coral disease such as white plague that destroys reef systems already weakened from coral bleaching driven by warmer sea temperatures.