From: "Bonaire National Marine Park" <marinepark@stinapa.org>
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:46:10 -0400

Dear All:

It has been brought to my attention that some divers have been putting dead coral on top of live colonies as a markers to find their way back to the exit point. This practice as you can imagine beside being unnecessary if you have some minimum navigation skills, damage the live tissue of the coral and is illegal. The wounds produced by this markers are possible points of infection for different diseases like black band disease or yellow blotch. Please inform your divers accordingly and discourage this practice. For more information about coral reefs diseases please check http://www.coris.noaa.gov/about/diseases/

Best regards and do not hesitate in contact me if you have some further questions.

*************************************

STINAPA Bonaire

Ramón de León

Manager - Bonaire National Marine Park

P.O. Box 368
Bonaire - Netherlands Antilles.
Phone: (599) 717 8444.
Fax: (599) 717 7318.

E-mail: marinepark@stinapa.org

I swear, if I see someone doing that I'm going to go "Sea Hunt" and start cutting hoses with my sea snips. It always worked for Mike Nelson, but he used a knife.

Mike was cutting 2-hose reg hoses, I believe - different animal from today's 'armored' single hose 'IP' hoses!

You may want to test your system before trying it on a diver. Probably won't be happy and might be one of those crazy divers who carry a knife even while diving on Bonaire so you want to get it done quickly!!!

Good hunting!!! Yes, pun intended. :–)

(Message edited by glenr on March 26, 2009)

Good posting Freddie..I've seen this practice referred to in past postings by newbie divers to Bonaire. Absolutely NO NEED for anyone to do this silly stuff. Don't even think about doing it. Practice your nav. skills & you'll eventually learn by trial & error.

Or alternately, after you finish your safety stop, stick your head up and see where you are.

Thanks for posting this Freddie!!
What is not to understand about 'Don't touch'.
Working in diving now for a few years I only wish this practise was the worst I have seen...... The real scary thing is that 'the newbie' divers are not the biggest problem "we" have. I just wonder how long the diving freedom as we know it (and love!) will keep on existing if some (experienced!) divers keep on behaving like they do.

Retired Grunt... I will tell you about a group of young German men that we chased off Oil Slick sometime... they pretended that they didn't undertand English... but one of our lady divers, a soccer official and tough as nails, was German and read them the riot act with finger waving... she is very scary when provoked by divers lying in the coral... funny to watch but it was a very angry day...
Tomorrow Bonaire.... Bon Bini..... Tell Bruce Bowker I'll probably be buying something... it never fails...
Wheels up at 11:30PM... 4:30 on Bonaire... Yes!!!!

I must confess that a friend sent this to me to post Thank you

Maybe I'll need bolt cutters?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-dhP_jSO6I

I hope all the dive operators are including this information in their dive briefings. One thing is sure, if we see this happening when we're on island this summer, we'll remove the "marker" immediately to hopefully reduce the damage to the live coral.

I am sure that all operators do the best they can in terms of properly informing their divers. During the (for EVERY new arrival) mandatory orientation the MP regulation will be addressed and explained further if not understood.
During boatdives there will be a dive briefing before entering the waters and this is indeed another opportunity to address the same regulations again, but, come on here, how many times do you need to say the same things to the same people......
My point mainly is that with dive briefings you only reach the ones who do a boat- or guided shore-dive. We all know that during these dives it is not very likely that divers tend to violate the MP regulations and certainly not intentionally. The "bad" guys know exactly that they do wrong and think they can get away with it. It is a matter of mentality. Some simply don't care and think all those regulation do not apply on them for whatever reason, especially if there is no ranger or guide around.....

I would suggest to take a picture of the violation and then inform the Marine Park and or your dive operator. Preferably a picture of the violator doing 'it'. Please do so with all "mistakes" you see and let the Marine Park deal with it. They are the authority who should and can address this. Dive operators are limited (and bound) to informing their divers about the set regulations -- the park itself should deal with the violators of their regulations.

DiveWarm; (Please, please, please don't get me wrong,) I know you mean very well, but, what part of 'don't touch' did you not understand.....

Menno, so rather than having someone carefully remove the dead coral "marker" off of the live coral (after watching someone JUST put it there), you'd rather it be left? If that's the case, then I'll leave it there to damage the live coral further.

Since you do not know me and what kind of a diver I am, I do not take offense at your remarks.

I was kind of afraid that you would say this and take it this way after rereading my posting. As said, I know you mean very well and, indeed, I do not know what kind of diver you are. FYI: It has nothing to do what I think about this it is what the Marine Park regulations say. If everybody just applied these to their diving activities we wouldn't have this discussion.
See it more this way;
To others who might see you removing coral rubble from somewhere to put it somewhere else it would look exactly like that. They might have no clue what you are doing and what kind of diver you are, all they see is someone picking up something and putting it somewhere else....
Please contact the Marine Park and ask them what you should or should not do in case you see a violation.

some people just shouldn't dive........period

Menno, thank you for clarifying what you meant, I see exactly what you were trying to say and can't say I disagree with you at all.

It seems that doing what I normally do...keeping my arms folded across my body and my hands to myself, is what I will continue to do this summer diving Bonaire.

role-model (??sp??) diver that you are!!!

I met a lady who was required to wear gloves and had a current doctor's note to that effect. She would have some people come up to her and politely tell her that gloves were not allowed, while others would yell at her, shout obscenities and even sometimes become physically threatening.

The point being that things are not always as they appear. Running around quoting the Good Book and preaching to other divers without applying common sense may not be the best approach.

if ??sp?? is meaning me, I (hope) certainly try to be.
I wear no neoprene or lycra (Caribbean)diving, if I were to hit something, I would want to know, haven't come up with a mark in 17 yrs. No dangling gear, I dive with 4 lbs lead (2 lbs when using camera gear). I never do the 1 finger touch, while using cameras,ever, strictly hands off. What I mean about some people shouldn't dive, is in the same vane as some people shouldn't drive (Ithink we all know at least 1!)! In '02, my night vision started failing, so I sold my car, haven't driven since. Safety (for others) 1st! Just 'cause you have a license,or c-card, doesn't mean you shouldn't continue to improve your skills. I certainly meant no offense, it was a flippant remark (without back-up)sorry if that was implied.

??sp?? stands for 'spelling'.
FYI: I do wear a wetsuit and a thick one too I can tell you Bbbrrrrr.... 'Freezing' cold that water lately ....!!!!

We did a night dive at La Machaca and some dumb f*$£ had put 4lb weight with a strobe on a coral head next to the rope. I moved it to the sand.

I gotta say that I too wear a wetsuit and I need a REALLY thick one anymore. Not that it wouldn't be wonderful to dive without but I FREEZE and yes, I mean in the Carib. It sucks but it is what it is.

And Brian - you mean there's a problem putting lead on something living????