January 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 1   What's this?

A Brighter Side of Underwater Photography

how Lembeh resorts are turning their guests into better divers

from the January, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

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Even I was surprised by all the comments that my July 2009 blog post, "The Ugly Side of Underwater Photography" produced (go to www.undercurrent.org/blog to read it). Since then, I've wanted to write a sequel focusing on the good things about underwater photography, but I got busy on other projects and a lot of time passed. Then I heard about another ugly event related to underwater photography, and it pissed me off so much I wrote a very short, very angry blog. I held off publishing it, wondering if the situation would change and I could report on some good news for a change. Here's the history and how it all played out.

Several months ago, my wife, Maurine, and I were visiting friends who work in the Lembeh Strait. The dive sites nestled against Lembeh's black sand shores are probably some of the most vulnerable to bad diver behavior, especially among photographers and dive guides. Of course, I've seen this sort of "breathe through a regulator, lose your mind" type of behavior elsewhere, but Lembeh seems particularly susceptible because of the terrain and the overwhelming critter count. I still think it is odd that people travel halfway around the world, then lose all sense of respect for the marine life that brought them there in the first place. Like the unforgettable woman who, during one of our first trips to the strait, was caught standing on the bottom calmly holding a crinoid, picking off its arms one by one so she could get a clear shot of the commensal crab that had probably died of fright several minutes before. I watched as Lembeh pioneer Larry Smith swam over and gave her the ascend signal. By the time the rest of us got on the boat, the crinoid molester was on her way to the airport....