Deja Vu in Sharm
Dear Undercurrent:
I read your August article “Is
Underwater Photography a
Crime?” [telling Deborah
Fugitt’s story about being held
by the Egyptian police and
having her film confiscated]
right before leaving on a September
trip to dive the Red Sea.
Our group had been diving for
12 days on a live-aboard boat, so
a number of us had lots of film.
We were to return home
through the Sharm airport. This
airport has two X-ray security
points before you get to the
departure gates. With 50 rolls of
film in X-ray protective bags in a
carry-on case, my bags were Xrayed
and subsequently
searched. I aged 10 years when
they confiscated all my film.
Since the security people spoke
little English, my main hope was
my tour guide. He was speaking
Arabic to them. I was then taken
with my film to the security
office. The tour guide was able
to quickly secure the return of
my film by talking to a higher-up
in command. Our group then
proceeded to the second checkpoint,
where another member of
our group had film confiscated.
The tour guide spoke to them in
Arabic and the film was quickly
returned.
The moral of my story:
Deborah Fugitt was traveling
without the assistance of a tour
guide for transfers. My tour
guide saved me from having
many problems.
David McCray
Palos Verdes, California
Memory Loss
Dear Undercurrent:
I read with just a bit of
amazement in your September
issue that the “dive operators”
on Fiji had not heard of another
shark attack “in the 20 years they
had been on Taveuni.” In March
of 1995, I was on Taveuni. A
week before, a Fijian,
spearfishing in chest-deep water,
was attacked and killed by 12-
foot tiger shark. This attack was witnessed by the victim’s
brother, who watched the
incident from a tree at the
water’s edge. Memory failure in
the service of public relations?
William Ungerman
Santa Ana, California
“It has never been our
policy to flog or berate
our passengers for their
mistakes or technique.
What do you think?
Should we start now?” |
Should We Start Now?
Dear Undercurrent:
In all fairness, I would like
to respond to the article titled
“Reef Wreckers” in the October
1997 issue.
I have been operating liveaboard
cruises to the Bahamas for 20 years and dive charters for
26 years. For anyone to insinuate
that I have anything less than a
great concern for the reefs of
these waters is more than
misguided. It is my living, to say
the least, and that of the entire
country where we operate.
Any touching of the coral is
discouraged as much as possible
by our crew. Mr. Lockhart’s
description was first a gross
exaggeration as to the extent
that these two Swiss photographers,
of great reputation I
might add, touched the bottom
and which bottom they in fact
touched.
I dove on several occasions
to monitor the behavior that Mr.
Lockhart objected to and frankly
I saw none of what he referred
to. I did see them prone on sand
bottom several times and in fact
did touch some hard bottom
while swimming in strong
current more than once. “Destroy
the reef,” hardly. I did
make the remark regarding
Bahamian law referred to by
Lockhart, in jest of course.
It has never been our policy
to flog or berate our passengers
for their mistakes or technique.
What do you think? Should we
start now?
Captain Tom Guarino
Sea Fever Diving Cruises
Letter of the Month
Dear Ben:
I have been in the industry
too long and have read your
negative attitudes on DEMA,
products, and resorts too many
times to waste dollars on a bird
cage floor covering.
Bruce Longman
Beauchat Manufacturers Rep
Mt. Prospect, Illinois