Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email
 |
Checking for direct PDF access through Ovid | |
Excerpt
To swim, glide, and soar weightless and free over an underwater landscape was a dream 50 years ago. Today it is a wonderful reality. SCUBA(self-contained under-water breathing apparatus) gave us that reality. In 1943, Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnon invented the modern SCUBA, opening a whole new world for the adventurous, creating a new sport now referred to as recreational diving. By strapping on a compressed air tank complete with a demand valve, regulator, and a mouthpiece, it is possible to explore the local pond, river, lake, or ocean.
Initially, the underwater world was viewed as hostile and dangerous.“Everything will maim or kill you!” This was learned from the media or so-called local experts, who were never actually underwater but who presumably understood everything about that environment. The public's perception developed from various sources, like Jacques Cousteau movies or the Lloyd Bridges' television series Sea Hunt. Magazine and newspaper accounts of undersea events were often sensational in nature portraying SCUBA diving as an exciting but dangerous sport. A basic fear of the unknown created a macho image of the risk-taking diver, who at any moment could be eaten by a huge shark. Unfortunately, this image still exists in many minds.
In trying to popularize the sport, some well-meaning divers and commercial entrepreneurs tried to paint a portrait of a fantasy world where“everything underwater loves man and nothing is harmful.” Beautiful films were made of pristine coral gardens with benign, exotic, and colorful marine life. Around every corner or on every seascape there were treasure ships with mounds of gold and heaps of pearls waiting for the underwater explorer to gather up in his arms.
Today the knowledgeable, well-trained SCUBA diver knows these concepts are wrong and may, in fact, be dangerous. There are creatures with a frightening appearance that are quite harmless and creatures with a harmless appearance that can hurt or even kill the unwary diver. Hazardous marine life and dangerous diving conditions are easily avoidable, but one must be well-trained to recognize problems before they occur. Knowledge of the underwater environment can offer the modern sports diver a great level of protection.
Early skin and SCUBA divers were often spearfishermen or food gatherers. There was a misplaced pride in being the one who speared the biggest fish or collected the largest number of fish in a certain time period. The individuals who caught the largest lobster, the most crabs, clams, oysters, scallops, or mussels were the local heroes. Little concern was expressed about conservation, or whether they were antagonizing the local fishermen. Only after the depletion of local species from favorite wreck or reef sites did the divers question what they were doing to the environment. Only after recognition that areas could be depleted of desired species were conservation societies, such as the American Littoral Society, organized. Spearfishing, while still practiced by a few sports divers, is no longer popular in the United States.
The spearfishing phase was followed by the wreck diver's view of the undersea sphere. All sunken vessels were fair game. Treasure could be a centuries-old Spanish doubloon or a port hole from a ship that sank the week before. When wreck divers began to destroy ancient ship wrecks to retrieve the gold or amphora they ran into conflict with marine archaeologists. Today, very few sports divers are willing to invest the needed capital to become treasure hunters. However, there will always be a small number of recreational divers who will evolve into treasure seekers.
The next phase to occur in sports diving was the emergence of underwater photographers.
