Divers with cameras often require special attention in order to prevent them from harming coral and other marine life.
The Green Fins environmental best practice for underwater photographers highlights the most important things to look out for in your customers. Read on to see each point in detail.
Do not allow them to rest equipment on coral or hold onto it.
In order to make these behaviours less likely, they should have neutral buoyancy before being allowed to use a camera. As a dive professional, it is your responsibility to ensure they have good buoyancy control before starting to take photographs.
Stop them from touching, moving or manipulating marine life for photographs.
Limit use of strong lights, flashes and strobes to avoid stress to animals – some marine life such as turtles or octopus may choose to leave and not come back!
Photographers are more likely to stir up sediment by being distracted, which can smother small corals. Therefore, it is particularly important that they have learnt advanced finning techniques in order to avoid this. As a dive professional, you can make this clear and demonstrate these techniques underwater to them.
They should learn to fin backwards in order to move away from coral reefs and other marine life without causing damage.
Dive staff can help photographers by steadying them or taking picture on their behalf.
If using a muck stick, ensure they are aware of the correct use and are not using it to manipulate marine life. Correct use means that the stick is used in a way that does not cause any harm to the marine environment and should only be used to point to something of interest. As a last resort and if you need to use it to steady yourself, Iit should only come into contact with dead coral, rock and sand. Before it is placed, the diver should check that there is no marine life under the stick. It should also not be used to tap on dive tanks to get the attention of other divers. Creating a lot of noise will also drive marine life away and disturb them.
Ask before the dive what shots photographers want so that you can be prepared.
Have floats or floating arms for cameras if they are too heavy.
Top Tip
Many photographers are much slower than other divers and may be more likely to harass marine life if they feel rushed by their guide. Offer photographers with professional set ups a personal guide for their dives to reduce this risk.
MANAGING DIFFICULT DIVERS:
Despite your best efforts to make initial corrections underwater, you may have experienced some customers that have argued back or ignored your requests. This is really frustrating for you and your team, and of course, there is still a big risk to the marine environment if diver customers continue to cause harm to the environment.
It should never be assumed that the more dives someone has, the better a diver they are. Sometimes customers with hundreds (or thousands) of divers haven’t adjusted their techniques since they first learned to dive, and may not be aware of how important it is to not touch live corals, rest on the seafloor or flash their cameras close to wildlife.
We can safely assume that no person actively wants to damage the reef on which they dive. Therefore “difficult” divers are often lacking the knowledge or awareness in order to improve their behaviour. If you are being challenged or ignored, you might have to use different ways to communicate with these guests.
We’ve put together some tips and examples here for you to try out:
1. SPEAK TO THE DIVER 1 ON 1 RATHER THAN IN A GROUP SETTING
You’ve already learned how important it is to explain why you made underwater corrections after the dive. You may need to pay special attention to some of your more challenging guests by speaking to them in a more personal setting than a group. Consider the following points:
Try to be warm, open and inviting during your explanations – remember to be human! You are more likely to get the outcome you want if you are friendly
Start the explanation conversationally or ask questions – Your diver will appreciate a two way discussion more than a lecture
Give detailed reasons why you corrected them – make sure this is a learning opportunity for your guests
Be aware that they may be acting this way due to embarrassment. A big sign of this is if your guest acts like nothing happened or becomes defensive. Try and remember that being corrected could be seen as shaming if not done in a sensitive way, especially if the guest has a lot of dives under their belt. Put yourself in their position and give compliments first before moving onto the corrections.
2. INCENTIVISE GOOD BEHAVIOUR
Rather than focusing on the negative, why not instead give special attention to your well behaved divers? This could include:
Compliments and extra praise – devote your attention and time to telling other divers what you liked about their skills and techniques. Your difficult diver will overhear and may want to be complimented too!
Only invite your best divers to special dive sites – have certain dive sites only available to your best behaving guests. That will incentivise everyone to dive following best practices all the time.
Discounted dives or vouchers – discuss with your manager whether you could incentivise divers to behave well by offering benefits such as monetary or food and drink incentives too.
3. OFFER ADDITIONAL COURSES AND TRAINING
Difficult divers may appreciate more 1 on 1 time with you to develop and practice skills that they are lacking. Offer your experience and training to the guest to inspire change in their diving practices.
Top Tip
If you are struggling to educate them directly, encourage them to take the Green Fins Diver e-Course especially for recreational divers. There are even scholarships if they cannot pay for the course.
4. HAVE YOUR MANAGER ON YOUR SIDE
Without your manager’s support, it is very difficult to feel confident to handle your difficult divers. You can ensure that you are receiving support from your superiors by the following:
Make sure that there is a clear sense of responsibility in your workplace – for example, it is clear that it is your job as a dive guide to correct guests and enforce best practice in your dive centre
Confirm that your manager will not penalise you for making corrections – speak to your manager and have it known that you have their support to manage corrections in your daily work. You won’t have to worry if any guests complain about being corrected – your manager will support you.
Ask your manager to speak to any difficult divers – if any of your guests won’t listen to you, they may be more likely to listen to your manager.
5. IMPOSE STRICTER RULES FOR GUESTS
And finally, some centres have enforced stricter rules when customers fail to follow best practice. Make sure that you have your managers backing before imposing any of these rules upon your guests:
Only let them join on easier dive sites that have less chance of customers harming the environment
Ban the use of cameras or offer to take photos for them
Get them to sign a form saying they agree that if they do not follow the instructions of the guide then they won’t be able to continue diving. This could be after 2 warnings or strikes for example.
Well done, you’ve completed this section and now it’s time to take the test!
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