Cave Conservation & Student Cave Divers

[Jim Wyatt]

Cave Diver Training & Conservation.

Recently I read a thread on this forum suggesting that the training of new cave divers is largely responsible for damage to our underwater caves.

When we as cave instructors take on the responsibility to train a diver to dive in a cave we take on a tremendous responsibility. The responsibility we undertake is to a large group of people and not just the one, two or three divers who have enrolled in our class. (Most of us will not train 6 cave divers at a time) Our responsibility is to the safety of the student diver, the family of that cave diving student, the cave diving public, as well as the well being and health of the underwater caves we conduct this training in, to name but a few.

We take on the responsibility to train these divers to dive safely and properly in a cave! Just what does this entail? If we were to poll all cave instructors and certified cave divers from all the cave training agencies we would find some very common attributes in which we all require and expect from divers certified to dive in caverns or caves.

Buoyancy control and proper body positioning are two of the things that we and all other cave divers require that the diver master before s/he can be issued a certification as a cavern or cave diver. This may sound all nice and self serving to the casual reader but please take time to read the rationale behind why we as cave instructors require the divers to have buoyancy and proper body positioning under complete control; thereby dispelling the myth that cave students are responsible for cave damage.

We facilitate the training by reassuring and encouraging the divers that they should move slowly and methodically and to get it right rather than to do it quickly. There is no place in the training repertoire where haste is the object lesson. The opposite is true; we teach and require slow, methodical and well executed movements, in this way the diver is better able to integrate each particular skill set in their muscle, or automatic memory. At the completion of training these divers go away with the ability to be neutrally buoyant and are able to do so almost automatically.

The underwater caves we dive into have sand, silt, mud or clay on their floors. Unless the floor has very coarse sand on the bottom once it is stirred up by errant fin kicks or by a diver sculling, the visibility in the cave can drop from 100 feet to zero in a matter of seconds. Losing visibility is a major safety issue and can cause divers to become disoriented, mentally stressed or even hopelessly lost in the cave. Even though we instruct these student divers how to cope with psychological stress such as this, we primarily teach them how to avoid situations of this nature. The old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure certainly makes sense here.

From the very first dive in a cavern diver course we impugn divers to overcome the desire to settle down onto the bottom and work on their knees or fin tips. It is much easier to tie a reel onto a line while stabilized and resting on the floor, but it is not allowed. We instruct these student divers before they enter the water that when doing all the various tasks cavern/cave divers must properly demonstrate they must do these tasks while neutrally buoyant and with a head down position of about 20 degrees. This degree of control is a baseline standard.

Working in this neutrally buoyant, head down (knees bent, fins up) position helps prevent the diver from stirring up the sediment on the bottom – thereby reducing the propensity for reducing or cutting off visibility. These divers are required to master this skill at the cavern level before they are allowed to proceed to the intro level and beyond.

When one of these students is swimming through the cave or tying off lines they are expected and required to maintain proper buoyancy control and body positioning. These divers are also taught various propulsion techniques to assist in the reaching of this goal.

When we observe and evaluate student cave divers running reels, tying lines and swimming through a cave we, as instructors observe them for proper buoyancy control and body positioning, amongst other very important things such as awareness.

If during the open water evaluation phase of the training we see divers who have inadequate buoyancy/posture control we remediate that before proceeding onto the cavern phase. If the diver cannot remediate that deficiency relatively quickly, and perhaps with minor gear modifications we suggest that diver get more dives logged in open water and get their buoyancy skills under control and then come back to complete cave training. There is a minimum standard for divers to be measured by. This standard is not subjective, just the contrary it is very objective and quickly evaluated by a properly attentive instructor.

Our philosophy is such that proper buoyancy control and body positioning are 2 of the several items the divers should show up to the class with, or be able to show mastery of in a very short span of one or 2 dives in the open water evaluation.

These same student divers are cautioned against bumping into the overhead for safety reasons. Banging regulators and manifolds on the overhead is a potential source for catastrophic gas loss.

With the two problems of stirring up the bottom and banging into the overhead we stress upon these student divers the importance of proper buoyancy control and body positioning to prevent these potentially dangerous circumstances from occurring.


When cave divers are trained to a certain level we can only hope that they will dive at this level after the certification. Human nature invariably dictates that some divers will train to a certain level and dive to a different level after course completion, some to a higher level; others to a lower level. I think we can all agree that we see this type behavior in all walks of life.

Cave divers are trained to conduct bubble checks and gas sharing drills at the surface before commencing a cave dive. How many teams do you actually see conducting these drills before their dive commences? Cave divers are also trained to maintain a continuous guideline to open water. These divers are also trained to install reels at all jumps and not to do visual jumps. How many teams have you seen make visual jumps?

I submit that it is not student divers causing what little bit of cave damage we are seeing but rather trained cave divers who have already seen the first 1,000 feet or so of the cave and are ready to proceed with scooters, stage bottles or other means at a faster pace to see the more distant parts of the cave. Another old adage may be appropriate here “Haste Makes Waste”.

I further submit that we invite all qualified cave divers to re-evaluate their own procedures, skills as well as the motivations for diving in these caves, our precious resources.

Divers being trained by responsible and qualified cave instructors are held to a very high standard of performance which greatly minimizes the possibility of cave damage occurring. These divers are not allowed to bang the overhead or sink down to the bottom during the conduct of their dives.

[jjsteffen]

Jim, quite the cogent post. I concur that the usual damage I have seen does not appear to be divers in training. The last trip to NFL I observed many out of area, (read: not based in Florida), including many trained outside of the US in cave diving, doing stage/deco bottle swims in Peacock, for whatever reason. It was easy to follow there path in the system by watching the rock debris trails on the floor. Seeing that these dives were normal backmount, 1/3's attainable dives, I could not figure out why all the extra bottles. I am not a perfect diver, but strive to avoid contact with anything inside the cave. If I was screwing the pooch as bad as I what I saw, the thumb would have been out, and I would have been in the basin working on it. Now, I am non-Florida based too, and agree that barring cave divers from these systems is not feasible, but feel that the trained cave divers causing this damage, need to make more cave dives, or limit the breadth of their dives until their skills are on par with the level of dive planned.

[johnnyrichards]

I disagree with a great deal of Jim's commentary.

A substantial portion of the damage being done in the popular caves is the direct result of training. The very recent damage at Orange Grove is a clear example of that. I was there the day that a "cave instructor" and single student exited the water. What I found in the cave was beyond belief- lime rock and clay particulate still suspended in the water, tank drags in the ceiling, rock litter on the floor and hand, arm and fin gouges in the floor. It appeared that when this team was not dragging the ceiling, they were scraping the floor. Apparently a lights out drill of some sort had been done from some point from within the cave out.

The CDS specifically designates the areas for lights out drills- at Orange Grove that would be from the warning sign out. At Peacock I, the Peanut Tunnel out. There is no justification for lights out drills, "bump and runs", etc. from Olson to Peacock I or any part of Orange Grove except as mentioned.

Some instructors have become lax and need to get it back together- or begin with getting it together. Whether we teach on a full or part time basis is not the issue- the respect we demonstrate toward the cave and every other diver who has the right to see an undamaged cave is the concern.

Solution: Close Orange Grove for training. I can live with that if it means that the cave will not be further damaged by the irresponsible actions of a few underqualified, uncaring instructors.

Those of you have recently dove either Peacock I, Orange Grove or Devil's systems realize we are not talking about "a little bit" of damage.

Not all the damage is the result of training, but enough is that the agencies should clearly be concerned about it and willing to take immediate action. Had I actually witnessed the damage in process, a complaint would have been filed with that instructor's Training Department. None of us are required to sit idly by when we observe cave damage- comment to the involved diver or his agency if an instructor is involved is not unreasonable. I would prefer to have a few people upset with me (I need to maintain the status quo in that regard anyway) than to witness the continued decline of this very unique, fragile and valuable resource.

Johnny

[Kelly Jessop]

Basically Johnny whether we as individual cave divers or as cave diving diving organizations don't do something to address the problem,somebody will do it for us. Sometimes I feel like chicken little,but I see the writing on the wall (no pun intended),and we won't like the results!!!

[Jerry]

Actually, in this instance both Jim and Johnny are correct. There is blame enough to go around; to students, trained cave divers, and Instructors. There are conscientious instructors, like Jim and Johnny, that drive home the conservation message. And then there are those Instructors that come from whereever to teach their twice a year cavern class and get in some dives, making yet more twice a year divers. How many Instructors are out there that never make a cave dive, if not instructing? There are still instructors teaching that certain valves are bad because they roll-off "when you crash along the ceiling"!! Why aren't they teaching Don't crash along the ceiling?

Don't read this as me bashing instructors because I am not; as I said above there is blame enough to go around. However, Park Managers and other regulatory persons read these forums and there perception is that damage comes from students. I have heard them say this very thing.

Their perception is our reality. If we don't police selves they will be happy to do it.

[mpoucher]

All three posts have valid points. We've already seen scooters banned at several state sites because of the damage done by careless divers. As Kelly points out, if we don't police ourselves, the state will do it for us and we probably won't like the results. The damage in Orange Grove is the result of poor technique from both training and certified divers. The floor is primarily clay and goethite, neither of which heals. Its a fairly advanced dive from a buoyancy standpoint. The ups and downs and low duckunders are a challenge if you don't have good technique. Take a good look at where the marks are and its very predictable - handprints at the bottom of duckunders and tank scrapes on the leading edges. Just about every dive through there I try to close up the handprints and pull the goethite out that was pushed into the clay.

Its all cumulative and we all have to take responsibility. I agree with Jim that students are often not the primary cause. Students are on their best behavior in class but they may get sloppy afterward, especially if they are trying new things too quickly out of class. Students are encouraged to gain experience, but how many really do before they go into more fragile areas like upstream Cow and Orange Grove?

On the other hand, it only takes one or two badly executed lights out drills through the clay in Orange Grove to cause tremendous damage. Both the NACD and NSSCDS limit drills to the very beginning of Orange Grove where the passage is all hard limestone. In my opinion, anyone doing drills beyond that is putting their students and other divers at risk because of potential silt out conditions. Its also a violation of state law:

810.13 Cave vandalism and related offenses.--

(2) VANDALISM.--It is unlawful for any person, without the prior written permission of the owner, to:

(a) Break, break off, crack, carve upon, write upon, burn, mark upon, remove, or in any manner destroy, disturb, deface, mar, or harm the surfaces of any cave or any natural material which may be found therein, whether attached or broken, including speleothems, speleogens, or sedimentary deposits. This paragraph does not prohibit minimal disturbance or removal for scientific inquiry.

Not to mention, its just plain stupid and irresponsible on the part of any instructor to do a drill in such a fragile area.

Finally, certified cave divers, especially those just gaining experience have to be honest in their assesment of their skills. If your not diving on a weekly basis, you probably need some tune up time before attempting the more challenging dives. For myself, I know this is true and I see a marked difference in my abilities when diving daily versus weekly versus monthly and it takes a dive or two to get into the groove. The caves aren't going anywhere and I'll gladly do a tune up dive or two so I can see pristine cave rather than blundering through and leaving my marks for everyone to see.

[Gary]

Oddly this topic has turned up about a year ago (and the year before that) yet nothing has been done to fix the problems.

It's time the cave diving population was trimmed down or limited to divers with actual good technique. It's time cave diving instructors stopped advertising to and teaching out of state divers who just want a new diving patch. It's time the requirements were tightened up so that a diver had to go to more then one instructor to get his 3 or 4 courses signed off - and instructors who's students regularly performed poorly were decertified.

Scooter courses should not be an "optional" or by site requirement. And regular dive proficiency maintained for the certification to remain valid - rather then the new cave diver with only the training dives who hasn't dove for a year and jumps in the caves for his own "refresher course".

But let's be honest, no one is going to do any of these things and there will just be more and more cave divers certified and more (and more instructors looking for more paying students to make a living on) and the damage to the cave will grow and multiply.

No single cave agency can institute such major changes and expect that their instructors can still draw the students - they (the instructors or the students) will just go to another agency to certify them. The various agencies can not come to any agreement for common "higher learning" requirements either.

The sites would have to require some higher form of certification and exclude those who don't have it - whether that is "abe davis" or some agency who has instituted new standards - or even a cave conservation cert.

Frankly I see this as likely to either be ignored forever (and damage to the caves continue) or continue as it is until sites get closed to cave diving. A similar discussion on scooter certifications was had shortly before several sites closed to scooters.

If the cave agencies can't fix themselves it is more likely that sites will close then that they will institute their own requirements or figure out if any agency has proper standards. It's just too much trouble for them to try to sort it out and so easy for them to close.

[jammer]

Well I for one have seen lots of these instructors do courses in the systems and I must honestly say that I have seen some that has done some top and bottom scaping. But I must also say that the old school instructors I have seen teaching courses are real stern on not touching there cave. As a matter of fact I have seen a couple of them tell there students that if they see them touch the cave with anything hand, arm,tank,or anything they would fail and no refund would be given. I also witnessed a few not making it past cavern. So I must say hats off to all that are hard nosed and stern and make a relaxing thing for the easy boy chair after the dive LOL.

I had not been cave diving since Jan 1st of 06 and I noticed alot more damage in Peacock and Orange Grove done since I was there week before last.

[Cindy]

Well, I do have some ideas. I serously think that two things in cave diving need to become more important if cave diving is going to last as a sport, we are going to have continues access to caves and we are going to keep caves nice. First we must have Education and We MUST have conservation. Like Larry Green suggested at the last NACD meeting. There needs to be a multi agency task force on training. It need to be accross the board and have some teeth. Bad instructors need to be tossed. There are a couple out there. People change and stop caring. There needs to be a reporting system for people to complain about guides and instructors. Someone actually need to pay attention to those complaints and handles them through the individuals agency if it's appropriate.

We need to support continued education and outreach programs for the public. The reason that the Cave Diving Museum is also a library is because we seriously think if we don't outreach to our communities, our Government agencies and our youth there will not be a sport of cave diving in the future. It will be lost. That's why we added that to our mission statement. It is something I strongly believe in. We need support in that effort.

Next each public cave needs to expand the role of the line committies to one of conservation also. If Orange Grove (using this as an example only) needs to be closed due to damage it needs to come from our community.
We need to develop techniques to handle cave damage in underwater caves and form a group of volunteers to handle that.

I will start researching ways to handle cave damage and will get that information online as soon as possible. I can't handle more than that on my plate now. I would love to see some divers step up to the plate and work on some of the above ideas. Let me know if I can help and I will do what I can. Cindy Butler

[Kelly Jessop]

Next each public cave needs to expand the role of the line committies to one of conservation also. If Orange Grove (using this as an example only) needs to be closed due to damage it needs to come from our community.

This is being done. That is why the line committee grew beyond that name,and became the underwater trail committee to allow it to cover its new role. The future plan through the Springs Cave Management Team is for there to be a cave conservation role related to everything that is done,this will encompass all state parks. Most people think the artificial placements in Peacock are hideous,and asthetically they are "Rube Goldbergish",but they have worked. I don't see line marks in the walls,less marks on the walls and floors;just like the poor man's scooter has worked at Cow.

I think education is a key,especially at the entry level. They always say you don't learn something until you hear it 7-8 times,that is why I am very pleased with the CDS change in training standards to have instruction regarding cave conservation after each post-dive debrief.
There are also some other things on the horizon that will help facilitate cave conservation.