What happened to Cozumel?

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When I dived Santa Rosa wall several times over a course of 2 decades I never saw much life on it which led me to believe it's generally like that. Especially when during the earlier trips most Cozumel reefs were teaming with life.

When I see divers damaging the reef due to poor skills or just plain ignorance or carelessness I figure it happens on a regular basis not just when I'm diving there.

Reasonable assumptions as I see it. Could I be wrong? Sure. But that doesn't make me a hypocrite.
So what are you trying to say? That because you didn't see something that it didn't happen?

Makes me think of a tree falling in a forest.
Yeah I just checked my logbook and when I first visited a couple of decades ago and saw a lot of great reefs filled with fish, Santa Rosa was not one of them.
what are you trying to say? That because you didn't see something that it didn't happen?
Your own words
 
Yeah I just checked my logbook and when I first visited a couple of decades ago and saw a lot of great reefs filled with fish, Santa Rosa was not one of them.

Your own words
It's all about the context. I saw something (divers damaging reefs), you didn't and you were disputing my account, seeming to suggest that it never happened simply because you hadn't ever seen it. With few exceptions every time I dive in a group there are at least one or two divers kicking coral, standing or kneeling in the bottom, dragging octos or gauges across coral heads, or even grabbing coral while taking pictures or when fighting current or surge. Even experienced divers occasionally contact coral with their body or fins. It's reasonable to assume this happens all day long and with hundreds of divers per day getting dropped off of Cozumel boats it's not a stretch to conclude hordes of divers have caused significant damage over the years.

If a diver says they saw a lot of marine life on Santa Rosa (or anywhere else in Coz or most of the Caribbean) I'd have my doubts. Mainly because we all have very different opinions about what constitutes a lot of life. I've been diving for over 40 years over the course of 750 dives all over the world, I've seen stuff that no longer exists. My bar is raised. If a newish diver sees a moray and a loggerhead it could be the best dive of their life. They can't wait to get back in the water while I'm striking yet another dive destination off my list. It's all very subjective.
 
It's all about the context. I saw something (divers damaging reefs), you didn't and you were disputing my account, seeming to suggest that it never happened simply because you hadn't ever seen it.
No. Any of us who have dived Cozumel for any length of time has seen the occasional flailing newbie kick something. What we are disagreeing with is "the onslaught of hoardes [sic] of divers on a daily basis who make contact with the reef, sometimes violently, kicking coral with their fins and breaking it off or grabbing onto it because they can't control their buoyancy or don't know how to properly handle a swift current".

Again, your words. This has not been my experience diving Cozumel, and I have dived it what would be a lot to some and not a lot to others.
 
Yeah I just checked my logbook and when I first visited a couple of decades ago and saw a lot of great reefs filled with fish, Santa Rosa was not one of them.
Again, your words. So just because you didn't see anything, that's reality? Make up your mind.
 
It's reasonable to assume this happens all day long and with hundreds of divers per day getting dropped off of Cozumel boats it's not a stretch to conclude hordes of divers have caused significant damage over the years.
This is why I asked you who you dive with. No, it is not reasonable to assume that because of your limited personal experience that you can extrapolate to believe that this is normal behaviour. I gave you my observations, after many years of experience diving in Cozumel (and 40 years of diving in total) and you outright dismissed it. Others have now provided their observations and have also called out your extremely limited diving experience in Cozumel for what it is. Anecdotal and irrelevant.
 
This is why I asked you who you dive with. No, it is not reasonable to assume that because of your limited personal experience that you can extrapolate to believe that this is normal behaviour. I gave you my observations, after many years of experience diving in Cozumel (and 40 years of diving in total) and you outright dismissed it. Others have now provided their observations and have also called out your extremely limited diving experience in Cozumel for what it is. Anecdotal and irrelevant.
Actually several members have agreed with my observation that the diving in Cozumel is quite poor as is the diving pretty much everywhere in Mexico and the Caribbean.

You pick and choose from posts that align with your way of thinking and ignore the rest.

Which is fairly typical.
 
Again, your words. So just because you didn't see anything, that's reality? Make up your mind.
You keep saying the same thing over and over again but make no attempt to explain or validate your reasoning. You appear to simply want to argue as if my words have offended you.

Are you a coral kicker or bottom dweller Shawn?
 
Any of us who have dived Cozumel for any length of time has seen the occasional flailing newbie kick something.
it's called demographics. Scientific and medical studies are based on it. You take a small population sample and extrapolate it and apply it to the wider population.

What you see when you dive is a small fraction of the diving population and the damage that is caused by the masses.

It's rather surprising this needs to be spelled out.
 
When I dived Santa Rosa wall several times over a course of 2 decades I never saw much life on it which led me to believe it's generally like that. Especially when during the earlier trips most Cozumel reefs were teaming with life.

When I see divers damaging the reef due to poor skills or just plain ignorance or carelessness I figure it happens on a regular basis not just when I'm diving there.

Reasonable assumptions as I see it. Could I be wrong? Sure. But that doesn't make me a hypocrite.
Cozumel is massive walls and lots of coral and life. Puerto Morelos is smaller coral and massive amounts of fish. This year I think I saw more clouds of fish on Cozumel than we have. But life on Santa Rosa???? Are you staying above 40 feet? Below 50' it is just alive.
 
I'd be curious what sites OP dove- last trip down, I did some afternoon dives with a lesser known operator last minute because Blue Angel had to cancel dives. We had some discover scuba folks on the boat, and did two of the most boring reef dives I have ever been on (I believe Chankanaab with two different drops) If that was my only impression of Coz, I would feel the same as the OP.

On the other hand, Cedral Pass for an afternoon dive was the single most marine life I have ever seen in 45 minutes- about 10 turtles (or the same five turtles twice- who knows), giant free swimming morays, nurse & blacktip sharks, stingrays, large schools of fish, school of squid, lobsters, crabs.... it was incredible.
 

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