What happened to Cozumel?

[cozcharlie]

Yes, for the first time this year it cost us more than $100/diver day on Coz. Last year the peso was up in relation to the dollar so I understood the increase. This year the peso was way down, so not so clear. On the other side they quoted me very close to the same peso price last year and this year. Made diving a little cheaper but I gave them more anyway cause the owners are the divemasters and I really like them.

I’m not tracking them all , but several costs for diver operators have either jumped or are very likely to jump . Not inflation style increases—giant discrete jumps. Marine park fees and marina slip fees were essentially doubling or tripling by recollection (I think at one point they were trying to increase marina slip fees much more than that ). The discussion(s) are somewhere on this board

 

[ggunn]

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.

What size is your sample? Mine is 600-700 Cozumel dives over a 30 year span. Something that I am surprised needs to be spelled out is that the smaller your sample size is in comparison to the population you are attempting to characterize the larger the margin for error is and the higher the probability will be that your so-called extrapolation is incorrect. I took Statistics, too.

Have I seen any bad divers around Cozumel? Of course I have; as I said anyone who dives Cozumel as much as I have has seen them, but in the main the people whom I have observed while diving around Cozumel are not an "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". Not even close.

 

[BRT]

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.

Cedral Pass is another one of those dives where you can't look at any percentage of the life you go by. Amazing!

 

[lowwall]

Just got done diving Santa Rosa. Best coral of this trip (12 dives).

 

[Shawn C]

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?

Read your posts #34 & #67 and you might be able to understand your hypocrisy.

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.

I returned to Cozumel in 2017 after first diving there in 2005 and I too was shocked to see reefs that were originally teaming with life to be dark walls covered in silt and devoid of life which reminded me of post apocalyptic movies, only this was real life.

Literally no one agrees with you that this accurately describes the reefs in Cozumel. I'm not picking and choosing posts that align with my way of thinking. I'm picking out posts (yours) that are exaggerations at best, and complete fabrications at worst.

 

[The Chairman]

Cruise ships are the main cause of reef health degradation by far.

Land based pollution is probably the main cause. Yes, cruise ships help create some of that, but not the ship itself.

 

[LI-er]

Read your posts #34 & #67 and you might be able to understand your hypocrisy.





Literally no one agrees with you that this accurately describes the reefs in Cozumel. I'm not picking and choosing posts that align with my way of thinking. I'm picking out posts (yours) that are exaggerations at best, and complete fabrications at worst.

Well that's certainly not true. Several divers have commented on the poor conditions of the reefs in Coz and elsewhere in Mexico and throughout the Caribbean. Not just in this thread but in many others and on other forums and social media. Personally I've seen enough bad diving in my 750 dives over 40+ years to be confident in my claims that divers cause a lot of damage.

Clearly you don't agree, and you're certainly entitled to your opinion. As am U. At this point the debate is circular with nothing new added on either side. So I'm out unless you have further questions for me that aren't about whether I see my own hypocrisy because clearly I do not.

 

[The Chairman]

It's all about the context.

It's all very subjective.

It really depends on your expectations. Reefs have been increasing and declining since before humans existed. I love seeing tons of fish, but I can also enjoy a dive with fewer fish. Some of my favorite dives included just a few blind crawdads and isopods.

On the other hand, Cedral Pass for an afternoon dive was the single most marine life I have ever seen in 45 minutes

The Socorros did that for me. Then there's the biomass of Jewfish on the Castor every fall. Seeing 30+ 500lb fish in such a small area is unbelievable.

 

[Joneill]

Land based pollution is probably the main cause. Yes, cruise ships help create some of that, but not the ship itself.

Yup - plus prolonged incidences of high water temps. While not a good thing, bad divers are not the main cause of degraded reef health, in my opinion.

 

[USdiver1]

Don't forget agricultural runoff that prompts algae blooms, in fresh and salt water.