The Observer Effect?

[Satrekker]

The glove issue is a bit off-topic, but I did want to add my 2psi. I dive in warm water with gloves and don't like diving without them. Lobstering and spear fishing without my kevlar gloves? Hunting lion fish, ascending and descending mooring lines in current without gloves? No thanks. I consider gloves safety gear. It only takes one incident to regret not wearing them and that's enough for me. If you don't want to wear them, fine, but I see infinitely more damage done by divers with poor buoyancy control, and there is ZERO causal relation between wearing gloves and lack of buoyancy control. I also dive in a full 3/2 suit in the keys in the middle of summer. :-O

 

[Nick Steele]

Okay took the time to read this whole thread lol. Many good points and interesting observations have been made.

Now onto my thoughts
I am totally fine with interacting with wild animals and that is why I freedive. Although I am against harassing them. Two of the most memorable moments in my life have been marine animal interactions.

First was on the edge of a reef in about 8-9' of water seen 3 lobster (out of season) and I went down to look at them in their hole. I grabbed hold of a rock (no algae or growth on it) and stayed still for 20 seconds or so and the bigger of the three came out of its hole and waved its antenna right in my face and then slowly walked back to its hole.

Then on a reef in 18-20' in low vis (10-15') during my ascent I seen a dark figure approaching thinking it was a shark I keeped my eyes on it and turned out to be a manta ray that swam directly under me about 9' or so under the surface. I turned and followed it since I never seen one before. It kept doing its thing feeding and even did one summersault. I knew better then to touch it but I did get within 3' of him and swam 200-300yrds with him before letting him go on his way. Never once did it increase its speed or cease feeding while I swam with it.

And on every trip I do with a green colored long sleeve shirt I always get little jacks (1" maybe 2") that will swim with me the whole time I'm in the water.


Now onto the gloves. I love a good pair of trusty gloves when lobstering but that is about all I use them for. I don't use mooring lines so no need there yet. And around South Florida being a very cold tolerant guy I can get by without them. I'm with @The Chairman I haven't used a wetsuit yet and I've been in water at 68F although freediving not scuba. For me it's basketball shorts and a long sleeve for sting protection.

And to do my part I haven't had any store bought sea food in probably the past 8 yrs or more. All my seafood comes from me catching or trading other meats (pigs,deer) to friends and neighbors for their catches.

Sorry for the long post

 

[RayfromTX]

I just spent 2 1/2 hours editing video from our last trip to cozumel. I discovered in light of this thread that I am neither as considerate nor as disruptive as I think I am in regards to wildlife. I saw plenty of evidence of being disruptive to their feeding patterns but mostly by my very presence, not by chasing them. I still have work to do on being aware of where I am in relation to overhead features. My tank and my fins still make contact sometimes with ceilings of swim throughs. I'm bummed about that. No handsies or danglies though.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Of all those divers surrounding the whaleshark, I wonder which one I would be when I found myself there in that moment. I can't honestly say but I am certain of this. I would have been angling to be nearer such a creature. My head says I should back away but my heart says "swim with me!" It's a tough topic. What harm can I do? is at war with the knowledge of all that we don't get to experience because those before us didn't think what they did mattered. They forever changed the world and now it's our turn to decide. What will we leave for our great grand kids? Healthy reefs? Species in abundance? Glaciers? Clean air and water? It is convenient to say that what we do doesn't matter but history would argue that it does. The pressure we place on the things we love....

Pardon me while I plan my next trip in an aluminum tube to a Caribbean island where a thousand of my closest friends go out every day to enjoy nature and talk about how much nicer it used to be back in the day.

I had a close encounter with a whaleshark in Cebu last year. I was busy photographing one, when I felt something bump me in the hip and literally move me aside. I thought it was another swimmer, but when I turned my head it was another whaleshark pushing me aside because I'd gotten between it and the krill the guys in the boat were dumping in the water. One of those guys looks at me and yells "DISTANCE!"

Yeah ... tell that to the whale shark. Got a nice shot before he pushed me out of the way though ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Lorenzoid]

When I walk across the lawn in summer, I may crush some bugs. Walk in the woods across leaf litter, and I imagine similar results ensue. I'm not interested in rolling around on the bottom, but I'm not above touching it. . . .

Well, the other side of the argument would be that a lawn isn't a natural environment; neither the lawn nor the bugs really belong there. Maybe walking across a lawn is analogous to diving in a quarry. In state parks and nature reserves where I like to do day hikes, signs encourage hikers to stay on marked trails because the cumulative effect of hordes of hikers tramping through the woods could do some damage. I behave in marine reserves as I would in nature reserves on land. In popular destinations, there are just too many divers to believe the act of a single individual touching the bottom can't have some impact.

 

[TMHeimer]

It's difficult to use analogies like--touching sand is OK, coral is not. There's always something living somewhere--like the spiders and silverfish that invade the house (MY space). Lawn aren't natural--to some degree-- but wild grass is. And critters live in both. So what does all that mean?
A couple pf years ago I was on the tractor mowing our 5 acre lawn and ran over a mouse. Figured "There's one that won't get in the house when the weather turns cold that I'll need the mouse traps and poison for".

 

[ronscuba]

It's difficult to use analogies like--touching sand is OK, coral is not. There's always something living somewhere.......

Agreed, there is always something living somewhere. What is the difference between the sand on the beach and the sand underwater ? You walk on the sand on the beach. You enter the ocean walking on the sand. What do shore divers do ?

I am not condoning divers constantly rolling in the sand bottom. The occasional sand bottom touch via finger, muck stick, tripod, kneeling, is acceptable in my opinion. There is a big difference between touching coral and touching sand. One is a live living organism. The other is.......sand.

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . . I am not condoning divers constantly rolling in the sand bottom. The occasional sand bottom touch via finger, muck stick, tripod, kneeling, is acceptable in my opinion. There is a big difference between touching coral and touching sand. One is a live living organism. The other is.......sand.

What I'm not sure about is the cumulative effect of possibly dozens of divers a day, every day, 365 days a year, sticking things in the bottom at heavily visited sites. You're probably right that it causes no harm, but rather than try to make a judgment whether that's empty sand below me or a goby's burrow, I prefer to just make an effort never to touch the bottom.

 

[tilikum]

Do you think destinations like Cozumel should start putting limits on numbers of divers and boats on reefs? If so, how would it be enforced?

 

[RainPilot]

I have reef aquariums. I also have dive sites where every 6 inches is another pistol shrimp and goby burrow entry.

Ocean sand is anything but dead. Except MAYBE within 50 yards of the beach.