Understanding Visibility

[Walter]

Perfect or Crystal Clear = Doesn't exist anywhere on planet Earth
Great or Excellent = At Venice Beach this is 15+ feet, in the Caribbean, it's 100+ feet.
Good = At Venice Beach this is 6+ feet, in the Caribbean, it's 70+ feet.
Fair = At Venice Beach this is 2+ feet, in the Caribbean, it's 50+ feet.
Poor = At Venice Beach this is 1 inch to 2 feet, in the Caribbean, it's less than 50 feet.
No Vis or Muddy = Black water, I can't see my hand when I put it against my mask.

Other areas will have different scales. Yesterday at Venice, we were thrilled with the 10 feet of visibility.

Reason for using 130' as the top of the scale is becuase this is the max recommended depth where most recreational folks can reach.

Does that mean 60 feet is perfect visibility for folks with their OW card since that is their recommended depth limit?

Reason for using 1' as no vis is becuase anything less is undiveable. At this point - you might as close your eyes shut and go 100% by feel.

It's not undiveable, I've dived it many times. When visibility is measured in inches, your eyes are still very useful.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

California shore diving
Perfect or Crystal Clear = 130' +
Great or Excellent = 25'
Good = 15'
Fair = 10'
Poor = 5'
No Vis or Muddy = 0"
I've had dives when I could only see my glove if I held it to my mask. I still dived.

 

[tgsmith]

Perfect or Crystal Clear = Doesn't exist anywhere on planet Earth

Check out the Silfra Rift in Iceland where two continents meet. And everyone thinks the carribean or thailand is pretty.......pah.......

 

[J.R.]

Midwest puddle-divin':

Perfect or Crystal Clear = Hummm... there are FISH in here!!!!
Great or Excellent = I can see my buddy
Good = I can see my hand at the end of my outstreched arm
Fair = Wow... I have elbows
Poor = If I put my hand ON my mask I can see it...
No Vis or Muddy = Normal...

Caribbean:

Perfect or Crystal Clear = Hey... isn't that the Titanic over there???
Great or Excellent = I can see the bottom of the dive boat... from the bottom of the dive...
Good = Storm went through yesterday... can't see the Titanic today...
Fair = I can't see the bottom of the dive boat from the bottom of the dive
Poor = Forgot to defog my mask
No Vis = Nap time...


It's a perspective thing...

 

[dpbishop]

Also varies with the purpose of the dive. I'll scrub a dive in less than 10 ft if I'm sightseeing, but if I'm after lobster I'll go in 5' or less.

 

[Teamcasa]

As scuba divers are always concern about visibility.

I like to categorize this. Since each region of the world has a different tolerance for visibility. To keep this on a level scale. Let's look at this from a recreational stand point. Perfect Visibility would = 130ft + and No Visibility would = 1ft

Please fill in the blanks as you see fit. Of course in feet of visibility.

Perfect or Crystal Clear = 130' +
Great or Excellent =
Good =
Fair =
Poor =
No Vis or Muddy = 1'

I dont get the point of this.

I do.

Perfect or Crystal Clear = 130' +
Great or Excellent = 40-50
Good = 20-40
Fair = <20
Poor = <5
No Vis or Muddy = 1'

To me, visibility is all relative to where and why I am diving. I dive to have fun so in the end, if I had fun diving the visibility was fine, regardless of the distance.

 

[String]

Visibility as people have said varies from location to location so your definition must change accordingly.

Some people refuse to dive in what they class as low so can never dive in certain countries drastically restricting their diving etc.

"Perfect" ive only heard described in Greenland and Iceland where literally you can see right across the lake and maybe some Cenotes as well.

For here "normal" is 2-3m (7-10ft) and im happy with that. Usually means you can see your own fins looking from the surface. Bad is <1m (under 3ft) and awful is inches. Excellent is 5m (15ft). Once in my entire life ive seen 10m (30ft) and that was absolutely exceptional.

However if im going to the red sea if its less than 20m i'd class the vis as poor.

Cant have one definition and apply it to all locations. You really dont NEED visibility to enjoy a dive, you just focus on the smaller details right in front of you more and more the lower it gets. Sometimes you actually see more that way.

 

[Guba]

If one tries to put vis into words ("Perfect", "Great", "Poor", ect...) then it is impossible to use them in context. Every place will demand a different interpretation, as we have seen. Here in Texas (Not counting the Flower Gardens, which is 100 miles off the coast), it might look something like this:


Perfect or Crystal Clear = What the heck is this? I don't understand the term
Great or Excellent = You're either in the FG on a good day, Balmorhea, or Aquarena (all cartesan springs), or the missile silo in the Panhandle.
Good = I can see my buddy
Fair = I can see my fin tips
Poor = I can see my gauges, but not much else.
No Vis or Muddy = It's late summer...but we go diving anyway.

 

[Beachlover]

Doing most of my diving here in so.Calif, I'd have to agree with what MaxBottomtime and Teamcasa said.

 

[DiverLS]

OK - I'll go from the photographer's viewpoint

Perfect or Crystal Clear - some of the best wide angle I've ever done
Great or Excellent - I get about 20% of my shots that I keep
Good - I ask the boat crew which lense to put on the camera - wide angle or macro
Fair - I go macro and get quite a few good shots
Poor - I take macro pictures of everything I can find and throw away 90%
No vis or Muddy - Time for a brew