January 2005

Vol. 20, No. 1     What's this?

What's Up With Harassment

from the January, 2005 issue of Undercurrent  

I think most of us agree that harassing marine life in the wild is not PC. We receive reports from you from time to time admonishing fellow divers you’ve seen ride turtles, beat pufferfish to make them blow up, or shake a sea cucumber just to watch it turn itself inside out. These things do occur, but in general, “Don’t Harass the Sea Life” is pretty much an accepted rule in the dive community. That’s why it is disturbing to see the two ads shown above, both of which originated within the dive industry.

This photo of a stingray being lifted out of the water accompanied a press release from the Cayman Islands telling us it’s okay to return to the islands after Ivan.

The diver jerking the shark’s tail on the Great Barrier Reef is from an ad for the Undersea Explorer.