[Coral-List] Underwater signage

Dennis Hubbard dennis.hubbard at oberlin.edu
Tue May 21 12:13:21 EDT 2013


Hi all:

Not that this is the case in the instance that started this discussion, but
there is another possible way of dealing with lost experiments, signage,
etc. - at least philosophically.

Years back, my daughter (now Arch/Anthro faculty) visited Tanzania on a
study away program. She had the foresight to convince the college president
to hire a temporary full-time person to teach Swahili. As a result, she
arrived in Tanzania quite conversant in the language and had an experience
that was VERY different than that of her peers. She is now fluent in
several dialects and that has given her a unique perspective (and a lot of
valuable advantage) when she has to work with local tribes and elders.

When the group visited Ngorogoro (sp?) crater, the local Masai invited her
into their village, apparently quite an unusual honor. Anyway, since the
early studies by Richard Leakey, the anthropologists had been leaving
"permanent" markers so they could revisit important sites. And.... as fast
as they were left, they mysteriously disappeared; it was presumed that the
Masai had stolen them.

Being a naive college student, Amy asked one of the village elders about
this... fortunately not insulting the elder, but rather giving him a
welcome opportunity to explain what now made sense to him. Apparently, for
all those years, the Masai had been interpreting these as territorial
markers such as those too frequently left in the colonial days and had
removed them with the intent of retaining their territorial boundaries
which did not correspond to the markers. The answer to the mystery was
simple - nobody had explained what the markers were for.

The lesson is that a naive undergraduate was apparently the first to ask
the Masai about this long-standing misunderstanding. At the time, it struck
me as amazing that a discipline that placed such cache on cultural
sensitivity had never thought to bring the Masai into the conversation.
Perhaps the signs will continue to disappear.... and it is probably much
harder to explain to an unidentified potential thief why they should
respect signs, experiments, etc. left underwater, but that might be a place
to start. Presumably these are divers and I would naively hope that they
would respect something  they understand to be an effort to better
understand the environment they love.

As a science coordinator for Hydrolab for some years, I found myself
dumbfounded over how much "research trash" was left behind and how
generally disrespectful my peers were of the system they were striving to
understand. I have had an opportunity to dive near the old Hydrolab sites
in both Salt River (St. Croix) and in the Bahamas. Myriad "experiments"
still grace the seascape if your eyes are calibrated to those pesky linear
patterns that nature is so loathe to create. I'm sure I could have filled
the boat at least three times over with all these "artifacts".

I'm sure we're all much purer of heart now.

Dennis



On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 5:13 PM, Douglas Fenner <
douglasfennertassi at gmail.com> wrote:

> Many years ago, a public aquarium that will remain unnamed had a large reef
> aquarium.  After weekends, they noticed some of the fish were missing.
> They put up signs that said "Warning: Chemically treated fish, do not
> eat."  Fish stopped disappearing.
>      I once was told about an electrophysiology lab where things
> disappeared.  A sign was then posted saying something like "Danger High
> Voltage, 5 million ohms" with a radioactivity sign below it.  Things
> stopped disappearing.
>     Cheers, Doug
>
>
> On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 2:30 AM, Ulf Erlingsson <ceo at lindorm.com> wrote:
>
> > How about this:
> >
> > "WARNING - DO NOT TOUCH - CONTENTS UNDER HIGH PRESSURE"
> >
> > Ulf Erlingsson
> >
> > On 2013-05-19, at 19:42, Scott Heron - NOAA Affiliate wrote:
> >
> > > Two thoughts on this from my experience:
> > >
> > > * Saying "WARNING" rather than "DANGER".
> > >
> > > * Rather than 'radioactive', perhaps try "ELECTRICAL WARNING: 50,000
> > > ohms."?  Ohms are the units of resistance (better still, use the unit
> > > symbol of capital omega rather than the word to look good).  High
> > > resistance is a safe thing; to the unknowing potential interactee, the
> > > reference to electricity combined with a big number should be enough
> of a
> > > deterrent...
> > >
> > > Cheers, Scott.
> > >
> > >
> > > On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 6:14 PM, martina <
> > m.milanese at studioassociatogaia.com
> > >> wrote:
> > >
> > >>
> > >> Nice idea!
> > >> I will try it myself, and adapt it to our dataloggers (that are
> > >> recurrently being stolen).
> > >> They are little cute things with a pulsing red LED light - apparently
> > >> very attractive to marine life covered in neoprene.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Martina
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Il 17/05/13 19.48, Michael Risk ha scritto:
> > >>> Good day.
> > >>>
> > >>> Many years ago [the statute of limitations has now run out] I was
> > >> attempting to obtain settling rates of invertebrates on panels with
> > >> different textures, set underwater at Catalina Island. I ran into
> > terrible
> > >> problems with treasure hunters/vandals/thieves damaging the
> experimental
> > >> setups. So I devised a modified technique. I wrote my text on the
> panels
> > >> using red nail polish, and then covered that with a fiberglass
> gelcoat.
> > The
> > >> panels themselves were simply soft wood 2 x 6 pieces, covered in
> > >> fiberglass. What I wrote was not accurate, but was designed to repel
> > >> invaders.
> > >>>
> > >>> Worked like a charm. The panels were underwater for many months, the
> > >> signage remained legible, and any algae could simply be wiped off.
> > >>>
> > >>>  A friend of mine, the manager of the Marine Lab, was standing on the
> > >> lab dock one day when a dive boat pulled up, and a red-faced
> overweight
> > >> irate diver  jumped off. He said "Hey! I was just diving out on the
> > rocks,
> > >> and I saw some panels down there.  I whipped out my knife and was
> going
> > to
> > >> collect them for my rec room, when I read the sign that said DANGER
> > >> RADIOACTIVE.  Am I in any danger because I came so close?"
> > >>>
> > >>> Bob had a moment to think, this is the kind of guy that has just
> caused
> > >> Mike to lose six months work. Then he said "Sir, you are in absolutely
> > no
> > >> danger. There is only a slight chance of any damage. Go home, and if
> > you do
> > >> not notice any change in your external genitalia over the next six
> > months,
> > >> you will know you are out of danger."
> > >>>
> > >>> Several lessons here. First, don't try this at home. Second, a
> gelcoat
> > >> over your text is a guarantee of longevity. Of your text.
> > >>>
> > >>> Mike
> > >>> On 2013-05-16, at 8:39 AM, Ruleo Camacho wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>> Good Day,
> > >>>> I am attempting to create some underwater signage for a snorkeling
> > reef
> > >>>> trail but I have been having immense difficulty in obtaining a
> > material
> > >>>> which would be adequate to stand up to the rigors of salt water and
> > and
> > >>>> micro organisms. Any suggestions on what materials/methods may be
> > >> suitable
> > >>>> for this use?
> > >>>> Regards
> > >>>>
> > >>>> --
> > >>>> Ruleo
> > >>>> _______________________________________________
> > >>>> Coral-List mailing list
> > >>>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > >>>> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> > >>>
> > >>> Michael Risk
> > >>> riskmj at mcmaster.ca
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> _______________________________________________
> > >>> Coral-List mailing list
> > >>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > >>> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> > >>>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> Coral-List mailing list
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> > >>
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>
>
>
> --
> PO Box 7390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA
>
> The views expressed are those of the author alone.
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-- 
Dennis Hubbard
Dept of Geology-Oberlin College Oberlin OH 44074
(440) 775-8346

* "When you get on the wrong train.... every stop is the wrong stop"*
 Benjamin Stein: "*Ludes, A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream*"


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