Taking GPS coordinates of a site... captain's permission?

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Not really quite the same.
Everyone know that casinos frown on it and will kick you out of the casino (which is all they can do as its not illegal), while a captain may or may not care about wether or not you log your movements on a GPS..

Also, of course the casino has to actually catch/suspect you first..

But if you come on a forum like this and have to ask the question, then you already know the answer. If you feel that you have to hide your gps or phone while taking the numbers, then you already know the answer. If it is a public number, do your own homework and stop copying off your buddies paper.
 
To add to the list of things DiveNav..

Newer CAMERAS often have GPS positioning as well as timestamping of your shots - Guess we shouldnt be allowed to bring our cameras anymore..

---------- Post added January 7th, 2013 at 06:34 PM ----------

But if you come on a forum like this and have to ask the question, then you already know the answer. If you feel that you have to hide your gps or phone while taking the numbers, then you already know the answer. If it is a public number, do your own homework and stop copying off your buddies paper.

What the bloody heck are you on about :confused:
I never said I needed to hide anything at all or that Im "writing off my buddies papers"??:confused:

And I sure never came in here asking the question..
 
Ok good... this is what I was looking for. It seems the debate is about 50/50 right now: some dive ops do take this issue seriously, and some divers think it's unrealistic to expect divers not to use their GPS.

Just to stoke the fire a bit: why do captains believe that the GPS system belongs to them? That is, the US government paid to put the satellites up. Those satellites communicate with a GPS device. The information provided by the satellites does not belong to the captain. It seems that denying divers the use of a GPS device would be on par with denying them the use of a camera... taking pictures of a site would likely provide as much proprietary information as locking the coordinates of a site (even more so when you consider that many cameras these days have built in GPS.)

Thanks to everyone for joining the debate. I'm very interested to see where it goes.
 
You guys......:shakehead:. If I am told not to, then I don't. I might grumble until I jump in the water but by then I will be in heaven and will forget really quickly. Just accept "Their Boat, Their Rules" and enjoy the dive. If in the end you do not like their rules then do not book with them again.

---------- Post added January 7th, 2013 at 12:39 PM ----------

Just to stoke the fire a bit: why do captains believe that the GPS system belongs to them?

It is not the infrastructure they are protective of.....it is the information. They put in the time to locate and learn the spot....you are leaching off their hard work.
 
I appreciate the sensibilities of charter boat captains, especially regarding uncharted diveable wrecks… but give it up without a written contract. It is sort of like an expectation of privacy of E-mail, anything written on the Web, or the ultimate insolvency of nations that consistently spend more than they produce.
 
But if you come on a forum like this and have to ask the question, then you already know the answer. If you feel that you have to hide your gps or phone while taking the numbers, then you already know the answer. If it is a public number, do your own homework and stop copying off your buddies paper.

I brought the question to the forum because I really had no idea where the dive community in general was on this issue. There is more to my story: on the dive trip previous to my experience in St Thomas, I met a guy from Florida that had been diving for 20+ years. I dove with him that week, and he marked every dive site that week with his GPS. I thought that was a great idea, so I bought a simple GPS receiver soon afterward.

Later, when I took out that GPS receiver in St Thomas, I got the lecture from the crew member. It was confusing: a very experienced diver marking every site for a week with no one batting an eye (and this was in the Caribbean), and then a crew member in the Caribbean telling me that behavior was taboo and likely to get your GPS device tossed overboard (yes, he actually said this.)

THIS is why I wanted more opinions on the subject. And as I just posted, it seems so far that the opinions are split about 50/50.
 
What the bloody heck are you on about :confused:
I never said I needed to hide anything at all or that Im "writing off my buddies papers"??:confused:

And I sure never came in here asking the question..

But you assume that my responses are directed at you. So what the bloody heck are you on about. You stated " they should ask you to sign an agreement indicating the rules", which I found silly. So I responded to that statement. The rest of my statements were made to the general public, giving my opinion to the OP and the original question asked.

---------- Post added January 7th, 2013 at 11:46 AM ----------

I brought the question to the forum because I really had no idea where the dive community in general was on this issue. There is more to my story: on the dive trip previous to my experience in St Thomas, I met a guy from Florida that had been diving for 20+ years. I dove with him that week, and he marked every dive site that week with his GPS. I thought that was a great idea, so I bought a simple GPS receiver soon afterward.

Later, when I took out that GPS receiver in St Thomas, I got the lecture from the crew member. It was confusing: a very experienced diver marking every site for a week with no one batting an eye (and this was in the Caribbean), and then a crew member in the Caribbean telling me that behavior was taboo and likely to get your GPS device tossed overboard (yes, he actually said this.)

THIS is why I wanted more opinions on the subject. And as I just posted, it seems so far that the opinions are split about 50/50.

So you ask.
 
All right... before this becomes more contentious than a congressional budget debate, would it be fair to say that there's no simple answer to the GPS things but:

1. If a dive site is well known, with a dozen permanent mooring balls that are easily visible on Google Earth, and when you arrive there are four other dive boats there, it's probably going to be less of a problem if you mark it with your GPS

and

2. If a dive site is in the middle of "nowhere", and you didn't see another human being for the last 30 minutes of the trip to get there, and you've been told the site is something really special, it's probably going to be a problem if you want to use your GPS

and

3. The likelihood of problems using a GPS for all sites in the spectrum established by the two above extremes will vary accordingly?
 
All right... before this becomes more contentious than a congressional budget debate, would it be fair to say that there's no simple answer to the GPS things but:

1. If a dive site is well known, with a dozen permanent mooring balls that are easily visible on Google Earth, and when you arrive there are four other dive boats there, it's probably going to be less of a problem if you mark it with your GPS

and

2. If a dive site is in the middle of "nowhere", and you didn't see another human being for the last 30 minutes of the trip to get there, and you've been told the site is something really special, it's probably going to be a problem if you want to use your GPS

and

3. The likelihood of problems using a GPS for all sites in the spectrum established by the two above extremes will vary accordingly?

By God I think you have it.
 
Well then I'd not take the gps receiver. Just my phone to take pictures. With gps positioning enabled. Each photo would have the coordinates. If a crew member threatened me with destruction of my property the first thing I'd do is notify the local authorities. Then I'd post their ops name and theirs here and on my facebook page and what they said. You're over a dive site open to anyone with access. Not a treasure site with a legitimate claim.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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