[Coral-List] Dive Marshalls

Sun Jan 27 22:51:20 EST 2013

I know of Dive operators (Red Sea and Indonesia) who "bench" divers who
repeatedly touch corals, etc., and even give them their money back.  They
train their dive guides to also serve as "marshals" in the water and
support the dive masters when they reprimand (politely but firmly) the
eco-inconsiderate divers, or offer additional training to the
clumsy/less-experienced divers in buoyancy control. The names of the
non-eco friendly/bad attitude guests are then shared among the dive
operators  association  for each operator's awareness and independent
action (i.e. Each operator has control over how they handle the
eco-inconsiderate divers.  I am sure/I certainly hope this is a common
action of high quality dive operators.

Years ago (late 1990s) when I worked in Red Sea Marine Park, park rangers
routinely dove on busy sites to observe and correct behaviors, either to
an individual diver or to the dive operator.

S
Stacey A. Tighe, Ph.D.
Marine Science & Policy Specialist
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814 USA/Jakarta, Indonesia
Tel- USA: +1-808-554-3657;
Tel- Indonesia: +62-811-909-376
Email: stacey.tighe at gmail.com

-----Original Message-----
From: <coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Reply-To: Coral-List-NOAA <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Date: Sunday, January 27, 2013 12:00 AM
To: Coral-List-NOAA <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Subject: Coral-List Digest, Vol 53, Issue 26

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>Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Re: Dive marshalls (Julie Hawkins)
>   2. Re: Dive marshalls (Shimrit Perkol-Finkel)
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:15:08 +0000
>From: Julie Hawkins <julie.hawkins at york.ac.uk>
>Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Dive marshalls
>To: "Julian @ Reef Check" <julian at reefcheck.org.my>
>Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
>Message-ID:
>	<CACSrtgoxijxv4kdLWgEUQxHgbeasKRRfSNSXU-bEJ2RwV-ckUw at mail.gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
>Hi Julian
>
>I snorkelled in such a place in Egypt  a couple of years ago (but
>others were diving there). I can't remember the name of the place for
>sure but it was something like Turtle Bay and it was reasonably close
>to Marsa Elam in Southern Egypt. It was a so called protected area and
>you had to pay a very small sum to get to the site. It could have been
>as little as 1 Egyptian pound (~ 25 cents). The area of interest to
>most people was a seagrass bed which contained several turtles and
>there was a guard (or might have been more) in the water trying to
>stop people from diving down to hold on to the turtles. Sadly he was
>completely unable to manage the appalling behaviour of the many who
>were trying (and succeeding) in grabbing these poor turtles.
>
>As an aside when I investigated the reef adjacent to this seagrass
>area I found as expected horrific levels of coral damage near to the
>edges. However on venturing just a few a bit further away the damage
>swiftly disappeared and I encountered some of the most spectacular
>shallow water reef I have ever seen in the Red Sea. It revealed all
>you need to know about the damage that divers and snorkellors can do.
>
>Cheers
>
>Julie
>
>On 25 January 2013 05:28, Julian @ Reef Check <julian at reefcheck.org.my>
>wrote:
>> Esteemed colleagues
>>
>> I acknowledge that this is not a scientific coral enquiry, but I think
>>list
>> readers probably cover most diving locations around the world, so can
>> perhaps help.
>>
>> I am doing some research on the issue of dive site management. Does
>>anyone
>> know of any MPA that is a popular dive site at which the management
>>regime
>> includes dive marshals whose role it is to follow dive groups and
>>monitor
>> their activities, and who have the authority to insist divers leave the
>> water for not "obeying" site rules (eg., touching coral reef with fins
>>or
>> fingers, interfering with marine life)?
>>
>> Any information gratefully received.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Julian Hyde
>> General Manager
>> Reef Check Malaysia Bhd
>> 03 2161 5948
>> www.reefcheck.org.my
>> Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rcmalaysia
>>
>> "The bottom line of the Millenium Assessment findings is that human
>>actions
>> are depleting Earth's natural capital, putting such strain on the
>> environment that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain
>>future
>> generations can no longer be taken for granted."
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Coral-List mailing list
>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>
>
>
>-- 
>Dr Julie Hawkins
>Lecturer in Marine Environmental Management
>Environment Department
>University of York
>York YO10 5DD
>United Kingdom
>Tel +44 (0)1904 324 073
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 2
>Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:29:31 +0200
>From: Shimrit Perkol-Finkel <sperkol at gmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Dive marshalls
>To: "Julian @ Reef Check" <julian at reefcheck.org.my>
>Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>Message-ID:
>	<CANmbTN6hfcgnQbeuMTN08tJFr20z2Mh3n4c2bKyzAD_oqy+xdw at mail.gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
>The marine reserve of Eilat, Red Sea (Israel) has inspectors that do this.
>
>Best,
>
>Shimrit
>
>Shimrit Perkol Finkel, PhD
>SeArc Ecological Marine Consulting
>Shimrit at searc-consulting.com
>+972 54 9840850
>www.searc-consulting.com
>On Jan 25, 2013 2:31 PM, "Julian @ Reef Check" <julian at reefcheck.org.my>
>wrote:
>
>> Esteemed colleagues
>>
>> I acknowledge that this is not a scientific coral enquiry, but I think
>>list
>> readers probably cover most diving locations around the world, so can
>> perhaps help.
>>
>> I am doing some research on the issue of dive site management. Does
>>anyone
>> know of any MPA that is a popular dive site at which the management
>>regime
>> includes dive marshals whose role it is to follow dive groups and
>>monitor
>> their activities, and who have the authority to insist divers leave the
>> water for not "obeying" site rules (eg., touching coral reef with fins
>>or
>> fingers, interfering with marine life)?
>>
>> Any information gratefully received.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Julian Hyde
>> General Manager
>> Reef Check Malaysia Bhd
>> 03 2161 5948
>> www.reefcheck.org.my
>> Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rcmalaysia
>>
>> "The bottom line of the Millenium Assessment findings is that human
>>actions
>> are depleting Earth's natural capital, putting such strain on the
>> environment that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain
>>future
>> generations can no longer be taken for granted."
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Coral-List mailing list
>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>
>
>
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