What Dive Areas are Disappearing?

[g2]

Hi All,

This past year of lock-downs and travel restrictions has reinvigorated my plans to dive places on my bucket list.

But many incredible dive sites are disappearing or already gone...

Some sites I want to dive -- or have already seen -- are seriously degraded due to climate change (e.g., most of the Caribbean, Roatan, the Great Barrier Reef, Maldives), careless tourism (Shark Point, Thailand, Cozumel), or permanently closed (Crater Lake, OR; or the cave portion of Selfra, Iceland). Others may still be okay but are threatened because they're being overrun or poorly managed (e.g., Richelieu Rock, many western Pacific destinations, Galapagos).

Obviously, divers may be part of the problem. But having seen the relative [lack of] damaged due to responsible divers, versus the massive destruction due to climate change, over-fishing, and mismanaged tourism, I think we may be a net positive: Caring, responsible dive tourism brings incentives to maintain healthy reefs.

So the question is, in your view, what is disappearing? Where in the world is still good and accessible, but will probably be gone in the next 10 years?

 

[Doc]

What is disappearing?

Our Ocean ecology is collapsing. The near-shore shallow reef structure is what you’re seeing. Your vision, measured by geological time, is myopic. At best, it is a snapshot.

Most every trip report has some commentary about “lack of fish life”. These comments are a highly subjective impression of a mere glance at a local reef. Any time I see a comment like this, I switch off. In my view, these hallmark limited perspectives.

Not saying it isn’t true. I’m merely noting that the writer is feeling the need to show how observant they imagine that they are. Smarter than the “annual fish count” people. There is life everywhere, you just picked a bad day, or maybe your observational skills aren’t as good as you imagine.

I have now seen four SB threads commenting about how some specific reef improved because of the absence of divers during the pandemic. YGTBFKM.

Are fish populations waning? Yes they are. So what’s your point? Maybe switch and do tech diving, wrecks, or maybe learn to sail.

This might amuse you: become a Lion Fish hunter and fix that problem. You go girl.

Still good AND accessible?

That’s the problem right there. Everything is accessible. Depends on your wallet and comfort level. In. 1972, Grand Cayman was still kind of edgy. Nassau and Freeport were just about to be on a downward slide.

The Caribbean places we went in 1974, places that now have hotels, these were destinations that most SB readers might imagine they dream of, but not many would actually embark on the adventure that it all once used to be. Dive travelers are not so adventurous any longer.

Unassailable proof: In the Caribbean, everybody babbles about oh-boy Guanaja (Dunbar Rock) or Cayos Cochinos or San Andres. These are still in the “adventure travel” category, at least for the Caribbean in 2021. Does anybody ever pack up and go? Count them on one hand.

If it’s easy to get to, it is already substantially degraded. Can you suggest a weeklong dive vacay with direct flights, with great diving, and entertainment (island vibe) for my non-diving sun-bunny?

No, no I can not.

There are countless dive spots in the Caribbean that remain quite nice. Why? Because the bother to get there is keeping you in Cozumel. And you keep voting it Readers Choice in the advertising driven popularity contest by Scuba Diving Magazine, Undercurrent the same.

I want to see big animals.

Try the zoo. Or better yet, dive a lot, maybe someday you’ll begin to see cool stuff.
Or you can do the lowest common denominator, take your GoPro camera to a canned Shark Dive or Dolphin Rodeo. Get your ticket punched. Do the Blue Hole during the same trip.

Pay 1.5 to 2x more $ than land based and do a liveaboard. It costs more, it has to be better.

Dive travel used to be an exercise in adventure. Your perception of adventure has been attenuated to a McDonalds pablum.

What will be gone in the next ten years?

Everything. If the world economy allows us to continue our supremely heavy carbon foot print that defines diving? If the economy allows it, We will build 8,000 foot runways, fly 300 vacationers, keep them entertained, drunk and fed, pump air at 3,000psi, drag loads of divers out and dump ‘Em in. Can you imagine the cost of fuel?

Or maybe you can’t. Let’s say the world economy takes a dump. Or maybe just enough that the demographic of the dive vacationer (or vacation diver) decides that $3,ooo to Cancun just ain’t doable this year.

The discretionary dollar becomes more discrete every year.

So, “if” dive vacationing takes a severe downturn. (Hint: it did before COVID) Reef conditions will not improve in your limited lifetime.

We are in a dying hobby that is practiced in a dying liquid.

if you want to pursue the “warm water pretty fish” style of dive travel (my personal fave), go, enjoy. See what is there. Learn what is killing it...besides your trip itself.

The Ocean still offers wonderment. Do not bemoan “how it used to be”. Take an underwater Naturalist class. Find naturalist DMs and follow them like you’re a puppy dog. Lose the camera and your ego. Dive a lot and perfect your buoyancy. Become a masterful diver. Do not collect certifications, gather knowledge.

This is truly a “life sport”. With luck, you will dive late into your years. I can barely walk now after 50 years of serious skiing, but I can still scuba dive. Just push me in. Diving now since 1959, got a cert card in 1968. After 45 years of dive travel, I can validly say that I have seen changes over repeated visits. If someone has 15 years to a few locations? That’s interesting. Give it some time and come back later.

I once asked “the” old man of the island’s diving community, I asked him, “why don’t you dive anymore”. His reply? “I just can’t”. Meaning, he just could not bear what now lay under the waves. What he had seen, what he knew, now gone...it had killed his spark.

The most interesting people scuba dive. Go, learn from them.

 

[tarponchik]

No matter how responsible you personally are as a diver, ocean acidification, pollution and overfishing will take their toll. So keep on diving while it is still there.

 

[ColoDale]

I suspect that here in Cozumel in the next few years there will be less fish life due to fishing during the pandemic. Pre-pandemic we saw 2-3 snorkelers at night spearfishing near us and not many fishing from the shore here where we are. I stress that this is outside the park on the north end. Now there are more spearers, both night and day, but we have seen an explosion (dozens) of fishermen from the shore and what seem to be average non-professional fishermen, fishing daily off the shore and piers. I think this is mostly subsistence fishing with some catches going to restaurants as before. They do this to eat since tourism collapsed.

What is disconcerting is that now they are taking many small fish with throw nets. They didn't do that before where we are. The catches are smaller fish and fingerlings. We used to watch larger fish schools come in very close to shore for the small fish on a daily basis (multiple times). Now it is more rare.

If there are less small fish then there will be less larger fish of the same species and also less predators.

To extend this, I imagine that any other island or coastal areas in lesser developed countries anywhere in the world would have their population doing exactly the same especially those that rely on tourism as a major source of income.

This is not an environmental rant or disparaging to those that fish to eat. I do not blame them. They have to do what they have to. I would do the same in their shoes.

I am not sure what you mean by "gone". Popular dive destinations will still be there. The ones with high tourism will have lots of dive traffic which has to do with access and infrastructure. Once a place is "discovered", there will be developers and governments that push tourism. Money verus conservation many times oppose each other.
Cozumel is trying rotating dive site closures. We will see if that works.

From the OP, the question seems to be "where should I go" with some higher level concerns about the state of reefs and associated problems. If you want more pristine then you have to get off the big market locations but that means harder to get to and less infrastructure, even in the Caribbean. I could give locations I have been to but they will still be here in ten years as all others will be regardeless of wear. All of this is apart from environmental issues but more remote areas have less local industry. Global pressures are different.

I personally would like to see more divers and less tourists who dive but that is arrogant. I saw the same in Colorado with tourism and higher population i.e. skiers, hikers, campers, cyclists, etc.

 

[CuzzA]

Obviously, divers may be part of the problem. But having seen the relative [lack of] damaged due to responsible divers, versus the massive destruction due to climate change, over-fishing, and mismanaged tourism, I think we may be a net positive: Caring, responsible dive tourism brings incentives to maintain healthy reefs.

Hate to break it to you, but there is no moral superiority here.

Most people never leave the States they were born in. Divers traveling the world to take pictures of fish underwater have a larger footprint than the average person. Globalization is the problem and global tourism and trade feeds it. It feeds humans to allow them to grow to unsustainable population levels.

Most don't want to admit it, but the bottom line is traveling divers are part of the problem.

Have a look at what tourism has done to many areas. Mexico is a great example. There's aerial pictures of Cancun/Cozumel decades ago and now. All the mangroves cut down and coast line developed for more resorts, more traffic, more people. All of it is detrimental to the reefs.

 

[Centrals]

There is NO need to travel to anywhere to see the environmental damage caused by human beings!

 

[Doc]

There is NO need to travel to anywhere to see the environmental damage caused by human beings!

I dearly love visiting and diving your Philippines, but I saw more industrial scale destruction there than I could have imagined. Still, much to see, but many localized zones are just forever gone.

 

[tarponchik]

Hate to break it to you, but there is no moral superiority here.

Most people never leave the States they were born in. Divers traveling the world to take pictures of fish underwater have a larger footprint than the average person. Globalization is the problem and global tourism and trade feeds it. It feeds humans to allow them to grow to unsustainable population levels.

Most don't want to admit it, but the bottom line is traveling divers are part of the problem.

Have a look at what tourism has done to many areas. Mexico is a great example. There's aerial pictures of Cancun/Cozumel decades ago and now. All the mangroves cut down and coast line developed for more resorts, more traffic, more people. All of it is detrimental to the reefs.

And most of this mass tourists are not divers. So no, we the divers are not part of the problem.

 

[CuzzA]

And most of this mass tourists are not divers. So no, we the divers are not part of the problem.

Really, divers are 100% not part of the problem despite most being tourists.

Do people read what they write around here?

So thousands of people flying into Cozumel every year to go kick the reefs aren't part of the problem. Who knew? At least we all can have a free conscience now.

Who's got deals on flights, hotels and ground transportation?

Key Largo, Cozumel, GBR. It ain't us, it's the other people so we don't have to think about all that carbon and pollution we create when traveling to these destinations. Awesome.

 

[tarponchik]

Really, divers are 100% not part of the problem despite most being tourists.

Do people read what they write around here?

So thousands of people flying into Cozumel every year to go kick the reefs aren't part of the problem. Who knew? At least we all can have a free conscience now.

Who's got deals on flights, hotels and ground transportation?

Key Largo, Cozumel, GBR. It ain't us, it's the other people so we don't have to think about all that carbon and pollution we create when traveling to these destinations. Awesome.

Like I said, most of the tourists are not divers. The number of tourists a couple of cruise ships brings to Cozumel exceeds the number of divers that comes there in a whole year, not to mention those hordes who come daily from Cancun by ferry. In Isla Mujeres nearby there is maybe a dozen of divers on an average day while about 20,000 tourists visit the island on an average summer weekend. Don't even try to compare there numbers. Curacao reefs are going to sh*t not because of divers but because of overpopulation and developing of mass tourism. Etc.