In Reply to: Hydrocoral damage at Farnsworth posted by Diver Z on November 12, 2009 at 11:40:47:

I would hate to see Farnsworth removed from the list of available dive sites. It's one of my favorites. That being said, I do make a point of checking the anchor placement every time I dive there – whether on commercial or private boats – and I can’t remember a single time where there wasn’t some evidence of damage to the corals. It’s obviously not intentional, malicious, or even negligent – it just can’t be avoided as things stand right now. To safely anchor and/or dive those sites, there are only a couple relatively small areas to drop your hook. The hydrocorals take a beating at those spots. So I can’t help but feel a little hypocritical when I oppose a proposal for a mooring system on these sites just because it may negatively impact my personal diving enjoyment, and I then turn around and criticize the recreational anglers for what I believe to be their short-sighted view of preserving our marine resources. Nothing will change if people only support environmental protections that don’t impact them.

But I think we’re missing a huge issue here. If what Ken says in his post is to be believed, these people at this meeting have already made significant advances and contributions to the diving community – this committee has figured out a way to limit Ken Kurtis to speaking for only TWO minutes!

SLANG

• Re: Hydrocoral damage at Farnsworth Diver Z 14:27:23 11/12/09 (0)