I’ve been stewing about something since my bride and I returned from the U.S. Virgin Islands earlier this month (November, 2020). As scuba instructors, we beg students to “Never touch the reef or its critters.” Most Open Water manuals contain this kind of counsel: “In general, avoid touching living organisms underwater. Doing so almost never benefits an organism, and seldom adds to the dive.” I like this distinction found in the PADI OW manual: “You can have passive and/or active interactions with aquatic life. Passive interactions are those that leave aquatic life undisturbed: watching, photographing, etc. Active interactions are those that affect aquatic life directly, by altering their normal behaviors: feeding, hunting, touching, moving, chasing, scaring, etc.” This is a basic safety issue. An active interaction that starts well may not end well. Somebody is going to get hurt!
I am all for spearing lion fish in places where they are an invasive species. I’m not as thrilled with actively feeding them to other aquatic species: sharks, morays, etc. I’m enthusiastic about replanting corals and the work being done by groups like the Coral Restoration Foundation. And this restoration work involves a fair amount of touching!
I am not encouraged by the examples of three out of four divemasters on our recent trip. Divers learn by watching and imitating their instructors and divemasters. When did we forget this? Imagine petting a stingray and disturbing its nap! Imagine encouraging other divers to hold sea urchins or pet the tops of jellyfish! Imagine poking a napping turtle on a night dive so that others can see it swim! And worst of all, imagine pulling a nurse shark’s tail to get it out from under a ledge! And then imagine doing any of these things in front of another instructor when he has his camera in hand! Proof is in the photos… “Hey fellas, let’s repent!”
Are you a newer diver? Don’t follow the example of those who are forgetting their training and even what they teach! Join me in thinking things through a little more clearly! And here is more to think about!
https://www.projectaware.org/files/PA_10Tips_Poster.pdf
Here is a great poster from Greenfins:
“Never touch anything” is great advice for most people who are ignorant about sea life. Go to stingray city in Cayman and you’ll see that touching a stingray clearly doesn’t threaten it’s life. Picking up an urchin and placing it in the hands of a wide-eyed marine-life lover before returning it to the reef doesn’t hurt the urchin. At all. Nobody complains about touching a shark when you’re taking a fish hook out of its mouth. The “best advice” for MOST people is indeed, “don’t touch.” But it isn’t gospel. It accounts for ignorance.
Dude! Thanks for your comment. I hated Stingray City at Grand Cayman for the same reason. I’m guessing the stingrays went hungry once Covid hit. Acts of mercy like removing a fish hook are always appreciated, but no less dangerous for newer divers. I won’t rebuke a specialist in these very special cases. But seriously, touching aquatic life is a slippery slope. We shouldn’t model this as dive masters and instructors. If we break the rules we need to explain why. Again, thanks for sharing your thoughts!