More Cave Damage at Ginnie's Devil's System

[Gary]

I think this is fairly recent or at least the first time I've taken note of it. The black shell rock covering the floor from about 1900-2100' has been torn up off the floor exposing clay and the clay now marked with fin and drag marks. Looks like swimmers have attempted to pull and glide thru this area for a couple hundred feet with heavy damage.

[Mike Edmonston]

I think this is fairly recent or at least the first time I've taken note of it. The black shell rock covering the floor from about 1900-2100' has been torn up off the floor exposing clay and the clay now marked with fin and drag marks. Looks like swimmers have attempted to pull and glide thru this area for a couple hundred feet with heavy damage.

Lovely, just lovely!

I'm waiting for everyone to post about breaking eggs to make an omelette, and that it's ok to dig in the clay in the name of exploration!

Unbelievable!

Leave bubbles, take pictures, and kill nothing but time! What the hell happened to that? Don't they teach it anymore? or is it now, Carry more stages, grab rocks till the break and dig through the clay to get through!

Whatever, you guys know my position on this!

[skip]

Lovely, just lovely!

Leave (nothing but) bubbles, take (nothing but) pictures, and kill nothing but time!

and touch nothing but water!

it's not rocket science, so what is going on? who are these people? how do we get the message across? I vote for signs that explain the natural fragile beauty of the world you are about to enter.

"This spring connects to an underwater cave system. Please respect the natural fragile beauty of the world you are about to visit. Treat it with kindness and respect. Please stay on paths, dive in designated areas, leave no marks, and please put your litter in provided receptacles. Divers please maintain proper buoyancy, refrain from pull and glide, follow proper line etiquette. Above all, please remember your credo: Leave nothing but bubbles, take nothing but memories, kill nothing but time, and please add: touch nothing but water. -Thank You"

Perhaps also adding a guest sign-in book in a kiosk may help satisfy those who must let the world know that they've been here.

-skip

[Mike Edmonston]

Perhaps also adding a guest sign-in book in a kiosk may help satisfy those who must let the world know that they've been here.

-skip

That's actually not a bad idea at all. I have seen very ornamented sign in books at some new-mexico caves (dry), and some trails in Scotland. People seem to get very creative in those books.

Also, I'm all for the sign.

[curtschu]

Since when did pull and glide become a no no?

[Daedalus]

Pulling on the same sturdy walls in the same place people have been pulling for 30 years is different than pulling on a nearly untouched floor and pulling it up. If I remember correctly, this place has a lot of black and tan rocks tiling the floor like a tortoise shell, each one having interesting patterns on it. Very sad if it has been damaged.

[billyf]

First the sign.
The first hundred times at Ginnie I have never read the WARNING sign that they have, and someone said that they have a WARNING sign like Ginnie at the Nest, after being there about fifteen times I still don’t know where its at?
Sorry but I think the sign is worthless!!

My opinion is that the only thing that is going to help protect the cave is tougher training standards!!!!


Zero to Hero HAS GOT TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!

[mfascuba]

This is one of the coolest parts of the main line in Ginnie, especially if you're swimming. You've just swam down the gallery, thru the lips, down into the cornflakes, then on down the main line past the dunes, etc. Just as you're starting to get tired, the cave goes from light to dark, like you entered another system.

The bottom in this area is fragile, and swimming thru this area is really cool. Hopefully the damage was an isolated event and doesn't become the norm, as this took probably a couple million years to form and mature into what it is today.

Mark

[MengTze]

.....
it's not rocket science, so what is going on? who are these people?

The attention alone attracts..........

'Isn't it great to read the emotions, anger and scurrying around by investigators to find the perpetrators?' "Look DIC, I now too have a posse after me and my signs are deeper into the cave" "What's your next move PULGA?"

This community wears their hearts on their sleeves, and maybe still thinks mankind is inherently good...........

[Gary]

Hopefully the damage was an isolated event and doesn't become the norm, as this took probably a couple million years to form and mature into what it is today.

It doesn't look like an isolated event. I don't think a single team of divers would have ripped up that much floor.

What I don't understand is how a formation that takes millions of years to form and survived generations of appreciative cave divers can suddenly, in a few months (at most), become fair game for divers who clearly care nothing for the cave.

Or maybe I do understand. It only makes sense that those who tore up Double Lines in the last few years would now be pushing further boundries... DIC is a symptom of a far larger problem that has already been passed on as certified Full Cave divers years ago - that simply don't care or don't know any better.