Code of Conduct

For a while I been interested in encouraging underwater photographers to do their best to look after the environment while enjoying their hobby, and (since we are among friends here) also be seen by the rest of diving world to be doing so!

This does matter and from time to time normal divers get a bit hacked off with photographers

See this example in a letter to Stephen Frink.

I guess that this was really brought home to me when I was reading a scientific paper on diving impact in the Cayman Islands and the paper contained a suggestion to ban the types of divers who do the most damage to the reef from certain sites. The types of divers? Novices and photographers! So it is possible that we may be banned from our favourite dive sites in the future!

Anyway, I bring this up because recently UK photographers in conjunction with the UK's Marine Conservation Society (and Funded by PADI's Project AWARE) have come up with a Code of Conduct for Photographers. The aim of the Code is to suggest useful guidelines, rather than be too draconian and be ignored. Afterall it is up to individuals to police themselves. It also helps to publicise that we are all not out their to destroy marine life in a quest for our images and most photographers really do care about the environment and marine life.

So if you are interested you can see the Code here!

Alex

Alex,

Right on!

My sig other works for NOAA at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. We were having a discussion similar to this yesterday - about photographing turtles.

According to the Endangered Species Act - it is unlawful to harass a turtle. Some people extend this to include flash photography. Some people go further to say that ANYTHING that changes the turtle's behavior is "harassment." So what to do when approached by a curious turtle, eh? It's an interesting question.

Here at the Flower Gardens, divers are shadowed by night-hunting dog snapper. They use the divers torches to find prey. You're swimming along, getting ready to take a photo of a sleeping butterfly and WHAM! It's consumed in a cloud of scales... Another example where discretion is necessary.

Just a couple of random thoughts.

Cheers

James

MMMM' Unless there is someone watching over every diver rules won't work, and most of the do-gooder's are guilty of what they are considering preaching if they told the truth. PADI especially, and need to justify their growing awareness funds.

Everytime we dive we cause a unnatural effect on the marine environment - Full stop.

Re Turtles - Their eyes work in pretty much the same way as ours, if it was a terminal problem there would be a law against flash guns!

Lionfish around the world have adopted the same nocturnal hunting technique too.

Interesting point about the flashes. It's not always clear what constitutes stress and the fact is that we always alter the environment by our presence. Divers aren't the only threats to turtles underwater. How does hand feeding sensitize fish to hook-and-line fishing?

The jacks and whitetips at Manuelita in Cocos take divelight hunting to the extreme! Lionfish can be quite annoying, too.

Interesting to note that if the Caymans bans novices and photographers they won't have any divers left.

Ha ha - about Cayman. It was only a suggestion in a paper (Tratalos and Austin, 2001, Biol. Conservation 102:67-75) here's the quote

"banning access for users thought to cause most damage (e.g. novices and photographers),"

Not a directive from the Government!

 

I do think that it is important that such codes exist. And I feel this one has a decent balance between its suggestions and not being over the top so it is simply ignored. Afterall a code must be implicated and enforced at the individual level.

 

To raise a related point, does anyone know of any underwater photography text books that have a section/chapter on environmental awareness?

For many years, my wife and I participated in the Nikonos Shootouts held around the Caribbean. The prizes were really good, and we had a great time with the competition and photo seminars by top photographers like Stephen Frink and Marty Snyderman (really super nice guys by the way). We started going to one Shootout a year in 1987. At that time, environmental concerns about the reefs were beginning to be heard loudly. At least everyone gave lip service to preserving the reef when they dived. Some of the U/W photographer's classic shots (e.g., girl sitting in the barrel sponge, riding a sea turtle) were already taboo. Soon, other shots like the inflated pufferfish were history. But at the Shootouts, you were competing with a Nikonos camera against 100-400 other photographers. A lot of us just enjoyed the diving and the fellowship, and we didn't really lose any sleep over winning or losing. Unfortunately, there are a lot of fiercely competitive people in society (not that there's anything wrong with that!), and competitive U/W photography brought out the worst in a lot of them. Despite environmental pep talks and admonitions, some of the photographers would do ANYTHING for a potential winning shot. Even divers who genuinely took the message to heart were guilty of damaging the reef, usually inadvertently by poor buoyancy control or lack of awareness as they looked through a viewfinder.

As time passed, we did see some gradual improvements in photographers' behavior, especially when the local divemasters emphasized care and awareness. Still, it's hard for any divemaster to really crack down or single out the worst offenders, since they work largely for gratuities and don't want to offend anyone. One year at the Shootout on Cayman Brac, one of the divemasters really lost it and gave all of us a very candid and scathing assessment of our behavior. It did have an effect, and my wife and I have been better divers since then.

I don't know what the answer is. Obviously, education by the certifying agencies is a start. This is essential, especially with so many new divers each year. A number of places like Bonaire and the Cayman Islands make serious efforts in reef conservation and diver awareness. The problem is hardly just reforming U/W photographers - all divers are guilty of damaging the reef. Maybe (probably) too much blame has been laid on photographers, but in any case, we need to set an example wherever possible in reef conservation and diving etiquette. It's probably impossible to get 100% acceptance among divers, since boors are boors, and some boors are divers too.

Hopefully, we'll reach a point in the near future where breaking a sea fan or crashing into a coral head will be as socially unacceptable as picking your nose in public.

This is a good topic. Thanks for starting it, Alex.