Firstly, we sincerely hope that everyone reading this is well and getting through this crazy time – leaving politics aside, what is clear is that the best and only way of getting through this is by doing it together in our communities. The old saying “think globally act locally” has never been more relevant.
The diving community, like many others, has taken an obvious hit as it relies on tourism and travellers and of course, no one is going anywhere. This does have a positive as it will allow all the worlds reefs to take a breather from tourism, because even with the best will in the world, they are impacted by constant scuba traffic.
Another positive is that hopefully some of the larger commercial/industrial fishing will have slowed and thus they will not have so much unnecessary ‘bycatch’ which can include anything they drag up from Dolphins to Turtles. There has been a number of Dolphins and Porpoises washed up around the UK this year which are being directly linked to the recent ‘Super Trawlers’ in and around British and Irish waters.
It might also have an impact upon the shark fin trade as less supply might possibly influence the demand and change people’s eating habits. If it does then the worlds Sharks will certainly breathe a small sigh of relief but I don’t think we should hold our breath on that.
Scuba is a transitory industry as a lot of people that work in it, move from one place to another around the world. Divemasters and Instructors will maybe work a season or two in one country and then apply for a role in another country. In some countries where there are a number of centres close together, staff will possibly move around a bit between them and not stay in one place for too long.
A lot of centres actually like this approach because like other aspects of the leisure industry, it relies on staff wanting to have the ‘lifestyle’ so they don’t need to, and often can’t, pay big wages. It also has a symbiotic nature as often a Divemaster course will be treated as an internship which allows both parties to benefit. The Centre will get staff that accept a lower wage and the DM candidate will get valuable experience to allow them to go on and work in the industry.
All dive centres around the world have been hit by this crisis obviously as they have literally no trade and cannot go diving. Independent instructors are not working and people that were working in the centres, Divemasters, Instructors, service engineers, boat crew, shop staff etc are out of a job.
It is a hard time for the Scuba industry and all of us will have to patiently wait this out until that time when we can start diving again. In the meantime, there are some positive things we can do;
- Complete e-Learning courses – a lot of PADI courses allow you to do the theory part online – do this and then you have something to look forward to.
- Purchase some equipment in anticipation of using it.
- Contact dive centres and talk about trips and diving – again, gives you something to look forward to.
We wish all centres, staff and divers around the globe the very best and hope that you can get through this and at some point, we will start diving again and so the thing that we all love doing.
