Posted by Jim Hoffmann on April 16, 2001 at 08:54:35:
Well I think we all agree....(that our Eco System is in trouble). It’s been interesting to read the post about this issue.
I found many of the post in denial, and many playing the blame game (its the instructor fault, its the Big Fishes fault, its the FG fault, its the government fault). Although there is
some truth in some of that, does it really make a difference?
The problem is that, the Eco Systems we dive in are in trouble. You don’t have to be a marine biologist to see that.
There is nothing wrong with hunting and gathering in a healthy
Eco system, but our system is no longer healthy ( to take out of them now, is just plain selfish).
I think it was Ray that said that I was Hysterical Extremist Environmentalist (HEE) (I have been called allot things, but not that). My politics have always been somewhere a little
right of Berry Goldwater.
I don’t think I’m an H.E.E. I think I’m a concerned DIVER looking for something that would make a difference on a grassroots level.
In my case I felt that not selling Hunting equipment and not allowing hunting on my dive boat charters could make a small difference. I think that if the other store owners did the
same it would make a small difference to. I think that if the charter boat owners limited hunting, it would make a small difference to. I think that if the individual diver limited their hunting or didn’t hunt at all, it would make a small difference to. I think that if we
educated our newer divers, it would make a small difference to. I think that all of that together would make a big difference in the area’s that we dive in.
This is not an issue about hunting vs non-hunting, the issue here is, will there be anything left to hunt, or to take photo’s of ,or just to look at.
When I think about our Ocean and what’s being done to it, I start to think that maybe I should become a HEE, maybe we all should.
Jim Hoffmann
Scuba Toys
HEE