Jokes please
April 4, 2008 – 1:32 pmIf anyone has jokes or funny stories they can share with us, this is the place to do it
If anyone has jokes or funny stories they can share with us, this is the place to do it
Postings welcome
April 4, 2008 – 1:28 pmThis is the place for Instructors to make their comments and make postings
Tulum marine conservation zone project ideas
December 23, 2007 – 1:52 pmFor any one who is interested, I am planning to begin work with some other people to begin the processes necessary for the establishment of a marine reserve in the Tulum area. Beginning in January 2008 we will begin discussions with a local lawyer and accountant to form a non-profit foundation with a charter of seeking and administering aid and donations for conservation and protection of a local reef area to be defined but initially we are considering dividing the reefs into take and no take zones and working with local fishermen and enlisting the aid of enforcement officials to control and protect the no take zones. Other measures would include: Establishing permanent moorings in shallow reef areas for snorkeling and diving boats to safely moor without reef damage. Providing educational materials regarding reef ecosystems and the importance of conserving them. Collecting research materials from many sources to support the validity and importance ...
Christmas party
December 18, 2007 – 12:07 amSaturday night we had a little fiesta at El Crucero. It was fun, Santa Mark and his little elf Sharon even delivered some gifts for the good little boys and girls who came. Conrad wandered around and took some photos, not too bad for a 6 year old: That's Conrad there on the right and the one with the silly grin, well that's me, Tim.
Return from beyond
December 1, 2007 – 1:21 pmMark and Sharon got back from California finally after their long sabbatical. Welcome back to El Crucero, we're going to have lots of fun this season. I wonder who we'll get to sing and entertain this year... somebody interesting always shows up. In any case, it's always fun with Budgie, Sharon, Mark, Will and William around in the evenings at the old Crucero bar.
Lobster harvesting and eating.
November 26, 2007 – 4:32 pmMany people do not realize that lobsters play a vital role to reefs. They clean all the organic garbage up by eating it. Without them, the corals eventually start to die, probably due to bacterial infections or lack of oxygen due to decomposing debris. I once had a lengthy conversation with an aquantance, a very intelligent and accomplished lobster fisherman in South Andros in The Bahamas on the subject of sustainable lobster fishing. We discussed the sustainability of various fisheries and in his opinion , the way things were going, the current levels (this was in 1999) and methods of Lobster fishing was not sustainable in the long turn. He said that he had personally observed that the reefs in the areas where the lobsters had been decimated, were not as healthy as those in less accessible areas. He was convinced that this was because the lobsters were not around to ...
Sustainable fishing? Where?
November 26, 2007 – 2:46 pmA few anecdotes and opinions on the subject...... Almost every time we used to have a night dive at our moored site at Tankah Reef, there is a boat there from a local restaurant (since destroyed by Hurricane Dean) fishing for lobsters and anything they can kill using scuba gear. In most countries of the world it is actually illegal to spear fish while using scuba gear. I have been diving in places, most notably the Dominican Republic, where fishing by locals has stripped most reefs of nearly all the fish. I have done dives on reefs with lots of corals, anenomes, sponges etc. but only saw 4 or five fish over 6 inches in an hour long dive and certainly no lobsters. Still I saw two or three poor looking local fisherman fishing from little boats in the same area we were diving. Obviously the fish on these reefs will ...
Shark population declines.
November 26, 2007 – 2:43 pmAnybody like sharks? At least it's nice to see a reef shark now and then when diving and Bulls and Hammerheads are a thrill and rarely do they harm humans. In any case they are a vital part of the marine systems they live in as more and more studies are showing. Here's a quote from a Dalhousie University report which you can find at http://communicationsandmarketing.dal.ca/media/2007/2007-03-29.html "Now, by examining a dozen different research surveys from 1970-2005 along the eastern U.S. coast, the research team has found that their original study underestimated the extent of the declines: scalloped hammerhead and tiger sharks may have declined by more than 97 percent; bull, dusky, and smooth hammerhead sharks by more than 99 percent." Anyone still think it's ok to kill sharks? Or from the Myers and Baum study at Dalhousie in 2003 "Overexploitation threatens the future of many large vertebrates. In the ocean, tunas and sea ...
Spearfishing and Diving
November 26, 2007 – 2:09 pmWell... I have been hearing a number of stories lately of local (Tulum and Akumal) Divemasters and guides actually spearfishing while guiding a group of divers. In one case, divers from our shop actually witnessed and were a bit shocked at seeing a group of divers carrying loot bags which the guide was busily filling with lobsters, octupus and all sorts of fish. That his divers willingly participated even shows a lack of common sense. In this instance it was actually the owner of the dive shop on Tulum beach who was leading and fishing, if you want to call it that. I have also personally seen (and yelled at) a captain of the same boat, fishing with a hand line from their moored boat while he had divers down and when we were about to start our dive also from the same mooring. This is not only ignorant but fundamentally ...
El Crucero shop officially open
November 11, 2007 – 5:54 amSo after a couple of months of renovations and repairs and after a few delays for little things like Hurricane Dean and vacations, we have finally decided our new El-Crucero Hotel location is officially open. Mark and Sharona, the owners, have been mostly away for a couple of months. They are coming back in late November and are planning on sticking around until June or so. We all look forward to seeing them back. That'll liven the place up a little. It's a great place to stay located right near the ruins, and a few minutes walk from the beach. The rooms are clean and cosy, restaurant is decent and the bar is always fun at night with people from all over the world mingling and having fun over a few cervezas. William and Budgie are regular figures, or you could say fixtures since they don't move around much :-} and lately ...