[Coral-List] #oceanoptimism, sort of...

Observatorio Pro Arrecifes Coralinos icri.colombia at gmail.com
Wed Jan 25 12:27:31 EST 2017


Dear Peter and other coral-listers,

Divers specifically diving operators should be involved in citizen
science to report what they see every day. I agree that academics of
diving should be stricter on conservation. PADI, NAUI, FEDECAS
(Colombia) do have some specializations and in the basic manual talk
about the ethics of the divers to avoid damaging coral colonies and
coral reefs, but need to focus more. We have engaged the diving
operators to report to us their videos and photos of the sites that
they visit daily or weekly with the same transects to feed a
monitoring system.

For the general public let us provide them with more videos and photos
of the coral reefs and also develop more virtual reality experiences.

As conservationist we know that the aquarium industry is not the best
alternative for teaching conservation!! (Check out the recent case in
Colombia where the local authority killed more than 40 specimens
extracted from an Indo Pacific Aquarium from which a juvenile of
Bamboo Shark survived and it is expected to be defined its destiny
before it grows to one meter (Suggestions are welcome)
https://www.facebook.com/ICRI.COLOMBIA/

Let us invite decision makers to dive in a healthy coral reef area so
they can fall in love as we are with coral reefs so they can help us
with the mission to improve the effectiveness of coral reef
conservation.

2017-01-24 21:37 GMT-05:00, Peter Sale <sale at uwindsor.ca>:
> Brendan and others on the list,
> Nice to see people looking at ways to get the message out.  I’m sure there
> are ways to enhance the environmental understanding of divers within their
> training programs and know that some attempts in this direction are already
> made.  But I am much more concerned about how we reach people who do not
> dive, people who have less opportunity to see a reef with their own eyes.
> Because we need a much larger change in behavior than could be produced if
> every diver out there became 100% committed.
>
> Also, nobody so far has picked up on one of my main points.  The oceans do
> not have to have reefs, and we do not have to have reefs.  Yet the
> degradation of reefs is a signal of lots of other things happening that will
> be necessary for us to continue some quality of life.
>
> Peter Sale
>
> From: Douglas Ryan [mailto:stardiverdwr at gmail.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 8:54 PM
> To: Brendan Turley <crabtails at gmail.com>; coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov;
> Peter Sale <sale at uwindsor.ca>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] #oceanoptimism, sort of...
>
> I actually like that idea a lot.  As a PADI instructor and a teacher of
> Marine and Environmental Science in a formal setting, I'd love to write that
> module.
>
> I reckon PADI would want to do some market research to see if potential
> customers actually want to pay to sit through such a module, and there would
> be a substantial cost to updating the course materials and training Course
> Directors and Instructors to teach it.  On the other hand, it would be great
> press for PADI and my sense has always been that the organization does love
> coral and recognizes that they benefit from working toward its protection..
>
> The recreational scuba diver can be, and in my experience often is, a
> powerful voice in favor of coral protection and conservation.  I think the
> recreational diving public would welcome additional training that made them
> more aware of the threats to the ocean realm and the role they play in
> combating them.
>
> On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 12:47 PM Brendan Turley
> <crabtails at gmail.com<mailto:crabtails at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Hi Peter,
>
>
>
> In response to serious matters to address ocean conservation. What about,
>
> as a small measure, approaching PADI and other certification groups to
>
> including a conservation module to basic open water diver certification? I
>
> understand that logistically this could be difficult, but small steps could
>
> contribute to progress.
>
>
>
> It seems as help from the top governmental levels at least in US is likely
>
> waning, we should seek out private sector help to secure a shared interest.
>
> I am not suggesting a novel panaceia, in all likelihood this has been tried
>
> before, but I thought it would be worth a mention.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Brendan Turley
>
> PhD student
>
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-- 
Cordial saludo,

Nohora Galvis

Directora Observatorio Pro Arrecifes
Coordinadora Red Nacional de Observadores Voluntarios del Arrecife
Twitter @ArrecifesCoral e @ICRIcolombia


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