Who Is Responsible for What Underwater?
During discussions, in the real world or online, often folks are not quite sure who can be summoned if some underwater fuck up happens. So let me explain:
Certification Agencies
Certification agencies such as PADI, SSI or RAID exist to provide standards for scuba teaching. In brief, if you take your Open Water, or Advanced Open Water or Rescue Diver course, these agencies tell the instructors what skills to teach you. If you are not taught properly or if unsafe stuff happens during your course, then these agencies can take action.
Certification agencies are however NOT RESPONSIBLE for anything outside of scuba courses under their banners. Someone acted unsafe during a fun dive? A moron grabbed a turtle? Someone swam too close (for your taste) to a shark? The dive shop toilet is filthy? All of these cases are not the responsibilities of any certification agency.
An exception is if a dive pro (an active instructor or dive master with an agency) acts in a criminal manner, even outside of a course. People have been kicked out of agencies for criminal fraud involving dive shops. But shitty service during a fun dive? Divers touching coral during fun dives? Terrible coffee on the dive boat? Not the responsibility of PADI/SSI/RAID…..
On topic: These are my scuba pro career advice videos:
Governments
In general, governments have jurisdiction over their territorial waters and what happens in them. This includes scuba diving.
If regulations for scuba exist, how strict these regulations are, and how well enforced varies a lot between nations. Behavior under water which is by any standards stupid and dangerous, such as going to 70 meters on air with a single tank, will not be illegal in the vast majority of countries (the Maldives have a legal depth limit I believe).
National laws often regulate wildlife interactions (you need a permit to swim close to whales in the USA I believe). Taking organisms out of the ocean, especially protected ones, is often regulated. This is, sadly, poorly enforced in some places.
In some nice marine national parks, park rangers educate about diving environmentally sound practices, and enforce them if they catch someone breaking the marine park rules. Even with really ambitious park rangers it’s hard for them to catch all touching coral and poking seahorses. There is generally no scuba police. But…. See below.
Dive Shops
When you sign up to dive with a dive operator you rely on them to provide a safe trip to and from the dive site, and a safe conduct of the dive. You can reasonably expect rental gear to be in good working order. Due diligence is the keyword here. Good guiding, showing you interesting marine critters, is the standard in many parts of the world.
But it’s not a kindergarten. You running out of air because you didn’t check your SPG all dive long is not the fault of the dive shop. Losing your dive buddies and knowing what to do? No turtles showing up? Poor diver training and unpredictable wildlife behavior are all not the fault of the dive shop.
And good dive shops voluntarily enforce safe and environmentally ethical diving rules. Diver Joe repeatedly touches a turtle’s arse? Despite a dive briefing being clear that this kind of critter molestation is inappropriate? Well, a private enterprise, which a dive shop is, isn’t forced to take everyone diving. Diver Joe can be politely told that he’s not welcome on the dive boat anymore after his turtle arse grabs.
NGOs
There are a great number of marine- and marine conservation themed Non Government Organizations in existence. I have worked with a few. NGOs do excellent work in many cases. Some of them work on human-wildlife interactions, and others on scuba safety.
NGOs generally have no jurisdiction about what happens in the water, anywhere. They can sometimes have indirect influence when they work with governments, and advise them.
Some NGOs can give scuba divers good advice on wildlife ethics, and on wildlife-diver interactions. The more they are actually science based the better that advice will be. Do they have scientists with doctorates, and research papers working for them? Or are they run by social media afficionados and overly emotional animal-rights types? The more they are locally involved, the more relevant their advice will be. Do they have a marine station close to a reef where you dive, or just an office in Euroland?
Certainly just because a NGO is generally nature-conservation-themed, doesn’t mean that it’s involved in a particular issue in a specific location somewhere in the world. They are private, often volunteer organizations, and not the nature world police. If diver Joe on Banana Reef in Thailand tackles a dolphin, then no, you can’t “Email PETA/Greenpeace/RandomHappyNatureNGO” and expect an intervention on site.
YOU
You are absolutely primarily responsible for your own safety as a certified diver. You are also the one primarily responsible for your own ethical behavior underwater.
To act responsibly, it’s important to be informed. That includes understanding what is NOT harmful to marine life, for example flash photography for seahorses:
Hope this helped,
Best Fishes,
Klaus
