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just a question for the whole board...

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
lungfish said:
I am indeed balancing against a bleached out coral, I look before I touch.....and I am touching nothing with my right hand.
I believe you when you say you look carefuly before you touch, from your reports of underwater life so far you seem to be very perceptive about those things.
But I've been told by someone who is supposed to be 'in the know' that touching bleaching corals is wrong also as new corals will grow on old corals. You might be killing some invisible larva that is trying to repopulate. Also, if the coral is not 100% bleached it can sometime recuperate. I wasn't sure before about bleached corals so I asked. Concluded that it might be damage free but not always.
Maybe Shadowkiller can add some more on that.
island_sands said:
rofl rofl
i think i got into BIG trouble a while back for asking you the same question :D
Oh the memories. ;)
No big trouble, incase you took my answer back then too literal, it was said said in a light manner.
And for the protocol here: I was meters away from the nearest coral in the aforementioned case. :)
 
righto...

Touching corals should be discouraged.

BUT. Fish do it all the time, so do turtles. I really dont think one grab of coral equals instant death for the colony. And yes its true that larvae can settle on bleached/dead coral.

The main point of the "dont touch" rule is to make sure divers dont snap off fragile corals. The damage to popular dive spots from fin contact is immense!

There is also some evidence that hard objects like fins can damage the corals surface, allowing disease to gain a foothold, but the paper I read couldnt confirm that theory.

People sometimes forget that corals are tough little buggers that are capable of surviving natural events like bleaching, and the odd human touch too.

If its wrong to touch coral, theres a special place in hell for me... having snapped more than my fair share while slamming into it head first while diving the Barrier reef! Not to mention dropping anchors onto plate coral *snap*, having a big trevally plough through staghorn after I speared it *snap* and managing to destroy a large section of a massive plate coral by landing on it with my back while rolling into the water off the dive dory *double snap*.

Mind you, all this was nothing compared to the damage from one single cyclone...
 
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I've dove all over this lovely planet.

I still find the Deep, Dark, and cold waters of the BC Coast to be my favorite, why i keep diving here :t


(and I can;t aford to globe trot much these days :D )
 
I just keep going to the places I love, try to squeeze in a new place when I can and keep looking around. The relationships that can develop with places, people and sea life are worth working on and that calls for spending time and returning again and again....
So many beautiful places, so little time.
I did try BC this summer, dove on a sunken Destroyer Escort up near Seychelt... first time in cold, dark water. Won't do it here in the SF Bay area even though I have invitations to boat dive off of Monterey.... the sharks are longer than the range of visibility! Too many seals in the water.... However, it was nice in BC and I could get used to it with some time.
I have a favorite place in HI with dolphins, every kind of reef critter, amazing coral and, if I had to, I could dive there every day and be happy. Sure I would love to dive Indo, Fiji, Belize, USVI, etc.... and hopefully I will. But it is great to have one place that makes you feel as good as you need to.

Lungfish
 

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New places or old friends? Go for both. A good, new dive area is adventure, excitement, thrill. Old spots you know well are like old friends, they wrap you up in joy and comfort. Finding an old spot that you haven't seen in 10 or 20 or ? years (and finding it still in good shape) is a special joy, blending the pleasure of finding something hidden with great memories and today's experiance.

Connor
 
So many places... so little time. And then there's the $$$!

Having said that, I've returned several times to Cozumel and also the mainland (Maya Riviera) below Cancun. Part of reason is friendship within dive club (Blue Water Divers, New Jersey)... that does a trip each August. We have a great time in good diving waters. And because we are all advanced... and control our boats... we don't have to handle the cattle boat, newbie syndrome that sometimes happens. On the mainland side, the attraction is the cenotes... caverns... cut in the limestone area. This is a unique enviornment and you can't find it anywhere else. So we return.

The other place I'm going back to is Wakatobi Dive Resort in Indonesia (see www.wakatobi.com), which is a 2-1/2 hour charter flight from Bali. I've posted a trip report elsewhere on this board. But suffice it to say I know or have read of few places in the world that offers so much critter diversity in such accessible waters. We consistently did dives of 75-90 minutes owing to the shallow depth (10 feet or less) of the reef tops, which meant we could extend our dives in lush coral gardens with tons of fish and other sea life. For photos, see my Flikr album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwar/sets/1366052/

I have the luxury of being able to take two/three trips a year... both I and my wife/dive buddy are retired. So we will continue to try new places. But when we find a good one, we will go back. The experience is always different. Afterall, we continue to go back to our favorite restaurant, too.
 
Same here David Warshaw. I have my favorite restaurants, and in time I'll probably have favorite dive sites as well. True there is endless variety to be found, but if I find a satisfactory site (or restaurant :D) then that's often good enough.
 
In fact I enjoy going back to the same place. Mostly because you never see the same fish twice! You see different thing every time.
 
righto...

Touching corals should be discouraged.

BUT. Fish do it all the time, so do turtles. I really dont think one grab of coral equals instant death for the colony. And yes its true that larvae can settle on bleached/dead coral.

The main point of the "dont touch" rule is to make sure divers dont snap off fragile corals. The damage to popular dive spots from fin contact is immense!

There is also some evidence that hard objects like fins can damage the corals surface, allowing disease to gain a foothold, but the paper I read couldnt confirm that theory.

People sometimes forget that corals are tough little buggers that are capable of surviving natural events like bleaching, and the odd human touch too.

If its wrong to touch coral, theres a special place in hell for me... having snapped more than my fair share while slamming into it head first while diving the Barrier reef! Not to mention dropping anchors onto plate coral *snap*, having a big trevally plough through staghorn after I speared it *snap* and managing to destroy a large section of a massive plate coral by landing on it with my back while rolling into the water off the dive dory *double snap*.

Mind you, all this was nothing compared to the damage from one single cyclone...

In marine biology class I learned the following:

Touching coral without breaking it off is bad because it wipes off the coral's protective mucus layer, leaving it open to bacterial infection.

Find a coral 10 feet wide and touch it in one spot, and the entire thing is doomed.

Fish can touch the coral without damaging it because they are covered with a protective mucus barrier too.

As for the paper you read, do you know who funded the studies?
 
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In marine biology class I learned the following:

Touching coral without breaking it off is bad because it wipes off the coral's protective mucus layer, leaving it open to bacterial infection.

Find a coral 10 feet wide and touch it in one spot, and the entire thing is doomed.

Fish can touch the coral without damaging it because they are covered with a protective mucus barrier too.

As for the paper you read, do you know who funded the studies?

With all due respect for not harming fragile marine fauna with thoughtless diving practices and behavior, I suggest that this might be incorrect. A coral isn't an organism, it is a colony of organisms, polyps. If you injure one, or several, many other polyps remain on a 10' wide coral head.

Corals can bounce back after some rough treatment (Bikini Corals Recover From Atomic Blast, Although Some Species Missing), but, as you suggest, there is no good reason to be thoughtless.
 
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Fish do it all the time, so do turtles

Argument FAIL.

Fish never breath air and turtles swim though box jelly swarms. Are those things okay for me to do too? I'm a noob and now I'm confused.

I like to vacation in the same place so that I can hit up the good stuff like a tasty but hidden cafe and avoid the crappy things like a beach with a tiny parking lot that gets targeted by thieves. I feel like I'm really getting to know an area. Besides, I'll never get to see it all anyway. If I stay in one place I can maximize the time I spend doing what I came for and minimize the time I spend trying to figure out where I am/where I'm going/what I'm doing.
 
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Fiji. Because for three months a year, for a good few years from now my parents will be there overseeing a holiday rental living in a small cottage on the beach.
 
Fiji. Because for three months a year, for a good few years from now my parents will be there overseeing a holiday rental living in a small cottage on the beach.

oh really!? ooh details please :)

do they have a website?
 
There are many reasons. No more fear of the unknown. The place was clean & had no bugs. No one got sick. The food was good. The diving was good, but you did not get to do it all or see it all. The people were friendly. The flight was easy or reasonably priced. One time it was because everything was perfect until the last few days when a tropical storm hit so we did not get to dive with the dolphins (AKR).
I am currently planning a trip to Thailand & have never been there. There is so much unknown about the destination, etc. that planning is MUCH MORE work than returning to a place I have already been. Trying to find out how far the launch is from the resort, how long the boat rides take, what to expect as far as weather, ground transportation, water temps, visibility. You name it, even with a travel agent, the planning of going somewhere you have never been takes more effort than returning to a place you have already visited.
 
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