Posted by Scuba Fever Divers on October 23, 2002 at 19:47:02:
Once upon a time there was a dive spot that consisted of a sunken vessal that was discovered by a "Local", who made literally hundreds of scouting dives in the PV area trying to find good diving spots. This vessal did not show up on any of the marine charts, and its origin was unknown as to how it wound up there. Besides being a great dive spot visually, it always had Lobsters hiding under it and literally crawling on parts of it sometimes. If a local wanted to get a Bug for dinner, it was almost a sure thing there. But as time went on, one local shared the spot with someone, and then they shared the spot with another and so on. It wouldn't have been so bad if they had just had grabbed a few bugs and moved on, After all Lobsters are a renewable commodity sort of. But all diver are not created equal, and some of them are good Bug grabbers and some need more practice. But instead of practicing each time they dove there, some of the "New" divers brought equipment along with them to give them better access to the places where the Bugs liked to hide when you missed that first grab. And then some of the "new" divers Charted a boat to take the "Dive Club" they belonged to along for the experience. To make a long story short, the dive spot that had produced for decades, is now so torn up, the Bugs dont hang out there much anymore. It's not from the rusting out effect only, cause all wrecks rust out over time, but all that equipment damage just hurried the process a lot faster. So it's not always just an elitist attitude with divers, it's also the fear that, unlike a surf spot that can be surfed by everyone for eternity, a good "dive spot" is vulnerable to being TRASHED by other divers who really dont care, because they didn't put in any effort to find it in the first place. I didn't mention the number of bugs that were found with spear holes in them! So before you jump to the seemingly logical conclusion that it's just an elitest attitude when Local Divers get agitated seeing comercial Dive boats anchored in the area, consider that they may have some negative experiences behind it.