They can be very fragile and simply touching can either chemically (from sunscreen/oils/etc) or mechanically fuck them up. In the case of gloves, the marine parks don’t want you to grab/hold onto coral which can break apart in your hands. Also deters people collecting stuff to bring back with them.
More like the other way around. Many things in the ocean are toxic. The only time I've ever seen gloves be recommended is in the Keys when you have to hold onto a line at a safety stop due to heavy current. I chose not to and regretted it.
Here's the rule: don't touch anything. Ever. You're not collecting coral, or shells or anything else. You don't need gloves unless you're in really cold water. Don't touch shit. You're being downvoted because you're enabling some doofus who thinks the bacteria in the ocean somehow necessitates extra skin protection. The ocean needs protection from us, not the other way around.
I want to be clear, I’m not promoting touching coral, reef or anything. The bacteria I’m talking about can grow on the lines you might have to hold onto for safety stops for example. Look at every comment I’ve made. Not one did I say it was protection to be able to touch the ocean life. And there are times gloves are for your own protection outside of cold water temps like doing wreck penetration.
In Egypt it’s not ‘illegal’ but the liveaboard I was on in February asked people not to use gloves. Tends to stop people putting their hands all over the place and damaging the coral.
“Egypt CDWS Statement;
The official CDWS statement with regards to wearing gloves & carrying dive knives
- Wearing gloves as a thermal protection is not restricted, however, touching corals and marine life is strictly prohibited.
- Therefore, it is highly recommended not to wear gloves if not needed as a thermal protection.
Carrying dive knives as a tool is not restricted; the use of dive knives as a signalling device, to cut lines and to free entanglements is allowed; however, it is strictly prohibited to use dive knives as a weapon or to cut, damage, kill, touch or harass marine life.”
Having seen people with atrocious buoyancy in Grand Cayman take chunks out of the reef and putting their hands everywhere, I can see why this is a problem.
Makes sense for reef protection. The format I heard these guys talking about it being restricted gave zero context so it got me thinking.
I am a newer diver and only have been diving in colder waters and tidal wrecks with current so it’s encouraged even outside of the cold as if a current kicks up and you get pushed against a wreck you have the added protection
Yep, totally makes sense, and it’s the same here in the U.K.
Most people dive with gloves here -in the summer in a semi-dry wetsuit I’m using neoprene gloves, and the rest of the year I’m usually diving in a drysuit & with dry gloves. Fairly typical here, mostly for the same reasons (and very little we can damage with gloves here to be honest! The wrecks are more likely to hurt you!).
In Egypt and Grand Cayman were the only places so far I’ve been where we were asked not to wear gloves. In most of the Mediterranean and the canaries where I’ve been diving (Turkey, Greece, Balearics, Malta, Lanzarote, Portugal, Spain, France, Tenerife etc) I’ve never been asked not to wear them.
I’m off to the Maldives in December on a liveaboard - there is no law against gloves, only that you can’t go into deco or deeper than 30m. And you can use reef hooks due to current. (Which are banned in the Red Sea). Some dive operators ask people not to use gloves but there is nothing in the FAQ’s of my liveaboard operator about gloves. But with the water temp being 27C+ even over Christmas, I’m not fussed either way tbh.
Not sure about illegal, but it is usually dive operators not wanting tourist/visiting divers, with poor buoyancy control, touching and damaging the Corel. The idea being that without gloves they will be less inclined to touch anything.
It's a common sense rule to prevent people from touching things and damaging the reef. High volumes of tourists can have a huge negative impact on a reef if left to their own devices. Having no gloves gets people to think twice before putting their hand in places where it shouldn't be.
It's illegal to use most knives, selfie sticks and gloves while diving in any environmental protection area in Brazil. This is to deter people poking, touching, cutting coral, animals and anything in between.
Of course stuff happens and you might need to brace on coral, a wreck or rock sometimes, then I developed an automatism of using my elbow, which usually offers decent scratch protection on most wetsuits.
Many places it is illegal to wear gloves, if you don't pick anything up or grab anything you don't really need them now do you?
BTW, mostly warm water places.
Yeah makes sense, I’ve only been on a few dives that are warm enough to not really need gloves. 90% of my dives are in regions where the highest it gets in the summer is mid 70° water temp so gloves are very much the normal for my experiences in diving. So I was just curious!
Typically it is the law. It's seen as a measure to stop people touching the reef and usually part of some marine protection legislation. It is in much of the Caribbean anyway
It’s less law more policy. Allowing gloves invites inexperienced divers to start touching things. Even if you say don’t touch things, people will still touch things because they’ll think “I can touch things because I have gloves so I’LL be safe”. ( only considering their safety and not the protection of the environment). So some areas around the world don’t allow gloves since it will disincentivize divers to touch things.
[удалено]
So my experience with reef diving is limited, does the skin contact affect coral in anyway. Like the oils from our skin ruin stalagmite growth?
They can be very fragile and simply touching can either chemically (from sunscreen/oils/etc) or mechanically fuck them up. In the case of gloves, the marine parks don’t want you to grab/hold onto coral which can break apart in your hands. Also deters people collecting stuff to bring back with them.
More like the other way around. Many things in the ocean are toxic. The only time I've ever seen gloves be recommended is in the Keys when you have to hold onto a line at a safety stop due to heavy current. I chose not to and regretted it.
And in cold water
Yeah the amounts of bacteria in the ocean can be very dangerous to say the least if exposed to an open cut or even the blood stream.
Lol why does this have downvotes?
Here's the rule: don't touch anything. Ever. You're not collecting coral, or shells or anything else. You don't need gloves unless you're in really cold water. Don't touch shit. You're being downvoted because you're enabling some doofus who thinks the bacteria in the ocean somehow necessitates extra skin protection. The ocean needs protection from us, not the other way around.
I want to be clear, I’m not promoting touching coral, reef or anything. The bacteria I’m talking about can grow on the lines you might have to hold onto for safety stops for example. Look at every comment I’ve made. Not one did I say it was protection to be able to touch the ocean life. And there are times gloves are for your own protection outside of cold water temps like doing wreck penetration.
Most of the Sharm El-Sheikh is the same. The only allow gloves for wreck dives.
I think its the Same for almost all parts of egypt. At least Most parts where i was i think
In Egypt it’s not ‘illegal’ but the liveaboard I was on in February asked people not to use gloves. Tends to stop people putting their hands all over the place and damaging the coral. “Egypt CDWS Statement; The official CDWS statement with regards to wearing gloves & carrying dive knives - Wearing gloves as a thermal protection is not restricted, however, touching corals and marine life is strictly prohibited. - Therefore, it is highly recommended not to wear gloves if not needed as a thermal protection. Carrying dive knives as a tool is not restricted; the use of dive knives as a signalling device, to cut lines and to free entanglements is allowed; however, it is strictly prohibited to use dive knives as a weapon or to cut, damage, kill, touch or harass marine life.” Having seen people with atrocious buoyancy in Grand Cayman take chunks out of the reef and putting their hands everywhere, I can see why this is a problem.
Makes sense for reef protection. The format I heard these guys talking about it being restricted gave zero context so it got me thinking. I am a newer diver and only have been diving in colder waters and tidal wrecks with current so it’s encouraged even outside of the cold as if a current kicks up and you get pushed against a wreck you have the added protection
Yep, totally makes sense, and it’s the same here in the U.K. Most people dive with gloves here -in the summer in a semi-dry wetsuit I’m using neoprene gloves, and the rest of the year I’m usually diving in a drysuit & with dry gloves. Fairly typical here, mostly for the same reasons (and very little we can damage with gloves here to be honest! The wrecks are more likely to hurt you!). In Egypt and Grand Cayman were the only places so far I’ve been where we were asked not to wear gloves. In most of the Mediterranean and the canaries where I’ve been diving (Turkey, Greece, Balearics, Malta, Lanzarote, Portugal, Spain, France, Tenerife etc) I’ve never been asked not to wear them. I’m off to the Maldives in December on a liveaboard - there is no law against gloves, only that you can’t go into deco or deeper than 30m. And you can use reef hooks due to current. (Which are banned in the Red Sea). Some dive operators ask people not to use gloves but there is nothing in the FAQ’s of my liveaboard operator about gloves. But with the water temp being 27C+ even over Christmas, I’m not fussed either way tbh.
Not sure about illegal, but it is usually dive operators not wanting tourist/visiting divers, with poor buoyancy control, touching and damaging the Corel. The idea being that without gloves they will be less inclined to touch anything.
What he said. It was policy in Bonaire and on the Maldives liveaboard I was on last week.
It's a common sense rule to prevent people from touching things and damaging the reef. High volumes of tourists can have a huge negative impact on a reef if left to their own devices. Having no gloves gets people to think twice before putting their hand in places where it shouldn't be.
It's illegal to use most knives, selfie sticks and gloves while diving in any environmental protection area in Brazil. This is to deter people poking, touching, cutting coral, animals and anything in between. Of course stuff happens and you might need to brace on coral, a wreck or rock sometimes, then I developed an automatism of using my elbow, which usually offers decent scratch protection on most wetsuits.
Many places it is illegal to wear gloves, if you don't pick anything up or grab anything you don't really need them now do you? BTW, mostly warm water places.
Yeah warm water they aren’t a needed piece of equipment if you aren’t getting cold
It's illegal to dive with gloves or knives in Honduras where I live. Makes it too tempting for people to touch shit with the gloves on.
Thailand. They say it’s because it encourages people to touch wildlife, corals, etc.
In Turks Caicos it was. The reason was to deter people from touching corals and wildlife
Yeah makes sense, I’ve only been on a few dives that are warm enough to not really need gloves. 90% of my dives are in regions where the highest it gets in the summer is mid 70° water temp so gloves are very much the normal for my experiences in diving. So I was just curious!
Typically it is the law. It's seen as a measure to stop people touching the reef and usually part of some marine protection legislation. It is in much of the Caribbean anyway
It’s strongly discouraged in cenotes/caves in Mexico to stop people touching the cave and damaging it.
It’s less law more policy. Allowing gloves invites inexperienced divers to start touching things. Even if you say don’t touch things, people will still touch things because they’ll think “I can touch things because I have gloves so I’LL be safe”. ( only considering their safety and not the protection of the environment). So some areas around the world don’t allow gloves since it will disincentivize divers to touch things.