Originally Posted by JamesK
By joining the WKPP they mean so that you can be a tank ##### for a year, then spend a year taking stage bottles to the first drop point, then a year later you get to scooter one drop point further, then a year later you can purchase an RB80 so you can keep being a tank #####.
No diving just because you want to enjoy the scenery ever happens.
This letter has been out there for a while. I received a copy of it before the meeting in January. Here are the 10 reasons with the rebuttal I sent to Sec. Vinyard and other board members.
Rebuttal of the
10 Reasons Recreational Diving at Wakulla Springs is a Really Bad Idea
1. Disruption of Tour Boat activity, which is the largest generator of revenue, over one-half million dollars per year, for the Park:
a. Recreational diving could actually reduce park revenue since there is no dive fee and diving will likely interfere with tour boats and swimming.
Diving is unlikely to interfere with any of the current activities at the park. At this time diving and swimming are allowed at Manatee, Madison, and Peacock Springs State Parks, as well as at Jackson Blue Recreational Area. Diving and swimming are also both allowed at St. Andrews State Park. None of these parks have suffered a reduction in park revenue. Diving used to be restricted during swimming hours at Jackson Blue Recreational Area up until three years ago. Lifting the restriction has not had a negative effect on revenue for the park. If there is a concern about divers entering the area where boats are located, a line can be located where divers can ascend and descend. This will keep them out of boating and swimming areas.
b. FS 327.331(4) provides that people must make a reasonable effort to stay 100 feet away from divers down flag.
True.
c. Glass bottom boats could not operate at all.
Not true. Boats go through the St. Andrews pass quite regularly even with five or more dive flags along the jetties. Diving activities have not closed the pass once.
d. River boat tours could not go over, or even near, the spring head.
Not true. As stated above an entry/exit point could easily be set up in the basin that would have the least amount of interference with current boating activities at Wakulla Spring.
e. No other state park that allows spring diving has motorized boats when divers are present.
While Jackson Blue Recreational Area is not a state run park, it is a
state owned park. Motorized boats are allowed 24 hours a day as well
as diving. Also, while not a spring, St. Andrews State Park runs a marina, boat launch, and encompasses a pass through from St. Andrews Bay to the gulf. Diving is permitted in the pass.
2. More appropriate diving sites already exist at Wakulla Springs State Park:
a. Emerald, Clearcut and Cherokee Sinks allow cave diving.
What makes those dive sites more appropriate? Also, Cherokee sink was never intended for cave diving, but rather for open water diving, and it is presently closed due to inadequate facilities.
b. The Park made concessions already to allow divers access to caves.
And diving has been taking place at these locations without any negative impact.
c. After opening these sites, at divers’ requests, divers rarely use them.
Clearcut was only recently opened to diving. The other systems are accessed when conditions allow for diving. These access points are deep systems, as is Wakulla Spring, and the number of divers that are trained and qualified to dive these sites is not very large. There are also a couple of things that have hampered diving at Emerald. The fact that part the year the system does not have visibility appropriate for conducting safe dives and the reservation system is very difficult requiring advance planning and faxing reservation forms. While divers may attempt to plan dives there, conditions can change in a matter of days. The other thing is with only a couple sites open there isn't as much incentive to get that many visitors. If more sites were open this would be an encouragement to get people to visit and in turn increase revenue to the area.
3. Negative impact to the environment wherever the divers access the springs:
a. Destruction of wetlands at proposed entry site.
Divers have been accessing springs throughout North Florida, Mexico, the Bahamas, and elsewhere throughout the world with minimal to no impact on the entry sites. Organizations such as the National Association for Cave Diving (NACD), National Speleological Society – Cave Diving Section (NSS-CDS), North Florida Springs Alliance (NFSA), and Wakulla County Dive Club (WCDC) have donated time, materials, and money to build steps and board walks to minimize and eliminate destruction to these sites. When permit holding divers have a dive weekend, they have large number of people who are surface support, in water support and gas divers, and these people are accessing the same sensitive areas-perhaps 20 people. Diving in Wakulla springs will have a carrying capacity and the number of people who would be in there areas would be 2 or 3 at a time.
b. Study has shown that divers are primary source for introduction of exotic species into springs.
Please site your sources. Actually, the primary source for introduction of exotic species into springs is boaters. There is a plan in place at Ichetucknee Springs State Park that requires gear inspection by the ranger for invasive species. This plan is also in the Emerald plan. A quick scan of the gear at check in can verify invasive species are not present on gear. We also have no documentation of divers bringing an invasive species to any other springs.
4. Introduction of commercialization of recreational activities sets a dangerous precedent that implies private profits over the public good.
Who is trying to introduce commercialization? We simply want to be allowed to dive Wakulla Spring. No one will be reaping any financial benefit from this. The closest thing to commercial diving at Wakulla Spring currently is the WKPP. Our plan does not include any commercialized diving.
5. Inability to protect lives of divers, and no ability to recover dead bodies by local law enforcement:
a. Depth of cave (300 feet) assures that divers may sustain injuries due to inadequate decompression time; some will die.
Eagles' Nest, Diepolder, Indian, Emerald, Lower Orange Grove and Peacock III (both located in Wes Skiles Peacock Springs State Park, Harvey's, and so on, are all in the 150-300' + depth range and none have had a death or injury sustained by a diver that was trained and qualified to be in those systems.
b. It is a logistical nightmare to life-flight someone out of Wakulla Springs State Park.
Diving injuries are usually transported by ground due to the complication altitude can have on a person after diving. Capital Regional Medical Center is the only hospital east of Pensacola and west of Jacksonville that has a hyperbaric chamber that is still open to diver injuries and is close enough to not require life-flight. It would actually be faster to transport by ground.
6. Scuba diving is an un-supervised sport—ask any diver!?
NACD and NSS-CDS have done a great job of "supervising" dives to a certain extent. These agencies and their representatives are the ones that sit on the boards and oversee access to systems like Emerald, Clearcut, Diepolder, Indian, etc., and also advise the state park departments on how to administer the diving programs in place at state parks, such as Manatee, Madison, and Wes Skiles Peacock.
7. Destruction and possible loss of artifacts and inability to investigate criminal activities
a. It is inevitable that artifacts may be stolen, not because divers are “bad” people, but because they’re human.
Conservation is one of the key topics in all cave diving training. Most cave divers will not remove artifacts. And the artifacts in Wakulla are large enough that it would be impossible to remove any of them without being seen. Also, how do we know that past permitted dives haven't taken artifacts? Why place blame on another group? In fact, cave divers have prosecuted someone who performed vandalism under Florida Statute 810.13 and established a fund of $1000 for reward leading to arrest. These artifacts are protected under the cave vandalism law and we work hard to enforce them.
b. Cave walls and other surfaces could be defaced. ( See Jackson Blue Springs at http://www.cavediver.net/forum/showt...raffitti-in-JB )
The damage in Jackson Blue Spring was done by recreational open water divers. The person who did the damage has been identified. There was also damage done in Cow Spring a few years ago and the cave diving community was able to find out who did it and was involved with the first known prosecution under Florida Statute 810.13 of someone for defacing an underwater cave system. We police our own. Additionally, the places that damage is being pointed out are systems that aren't state parks and they have unrestricted access, unlike state parks that have carrying capacities. So this is an unfair comparison. State parks have carrying capacities that limit number of visitors and there is a system in place called photopoints to measure for cave wear and tear.
8. Interference with ongoing, world-renown research:
a. WKPP is doing research, not recreational diving.
b. WKPP has invested over 4 million dollars in equipment and time.
c. Thousands of dollars of sensitive research equipment stationed within the cave system will be vulnerable to damage.
Cave divers do not touch or interfere with equipment that is currently located in other cave systems. It is unlikely they would interfere with the equipment in Wakulla Spring. When Emerald opened there was a science project at Cheryl that nobody interfered with. There has been an ongoing study at Peacock Springs and a few others that show that cave divers don't interfere with science research. Water quality is the issue and we share that concern.
d. Importance of research cannot be overstated. Agencies that have benefited include FGS, NWFWMD, DEP, USGS. The entire Springs ecosystem and the people of Wakulla and Leon Counties have benefited enormously.
Recreational cave diving in other Florida systems have brought about great benefits to the citizens of Florida in the form of water quality reports, mapping projects, and increased financial income in the form of money spent at local businesses and increased tax revenue.
9. Negative impact on the image of Wakulla Springs as a sanctuary as established by its founder, Ed Ball:
a. Trauma to park visitors when diving accidents will occur.
Diving accidents are not very likely to occur. Based on this argument we should restrict swimming because of the danger of drowning and spinal injury from diving into the water. Visitors should probably also be restricted on hot summer days to prevent people from having heat stroke or heart attacks. Ambulances have responded to Wakulla Springs State Park in the past with minimal to no trauma to park visitors.
b. Negative media coverage of Wakulla Springs when divers get injured or die.
Media coverage doesn't affect the location. It affects the group.
c. Swimming area and potentially the entire Park will be shut down until conclusion of rescue missions, which can take days.
This has not been the case in any of the other systems where fatalities have occurred. Cave divers are quick to respond to incidents and recoveries are done in a timely manner.
10. This extreme-sport of a few cave divers should not disrupt the recreational fun of the over 175,000 people that now enjoy swimming and the riverboat tours each year.
Cave divers have not disrupted the recreational fun of over millions of people that now enjoy swimming and other activities at any of the other springs in Florida, Mexico, or anywhere else. Why would they have a different effect at Wakulla?
Rob Neto
Chipola Divers, LLC
Check out my new book - Sidemount Diving - An Almost Comprehensive Guide
"Survival depends on being able to suppress anxiety and replace it with calm, clear, quick and correct reasoning..." -Sheck Exley
Well said.
Jeff Haley
Excellent response, Rob..
Exactly. That is the type of level headed logicsl responses we need.
It's not the years in your life that matter, but the life in your years.
Original Post Dec 2011.....
"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success."
Earnest Shackleton
Yes sir. And my response Feb 2012.
It's not the years in your life that matter, but the life in your years.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks