I think I want to begin writing articles on the reality of dive locations as they are, as opposed to what the magazines show. I am so sick of reading about places and then finding out I once again fell pray to false advertising. I really need to wizen-up. So, here's my assessment of my most recent diving:

Key Largo and Pompano -- my advice, ALWAYS dive with shears or a good sharp knife as the amount of fishing line and hooks tangled up in the reef is exasperating. (I know better than to cut line that has much growth on it but I do cut it if it's just algae and not going to harm anything by removing it) In addition, diving with some sort of big net is not a bad idea either, in order to catch fish to remove hooks and lines entangled in their gills or hanging from their mouths. I saw a 4' long barracuda with a hook in its gills and about 5' of line hanging from it. Got close but not close enough to do anything. I hear the hooks eventually dissolve? Even so...

What else about Florida? True I saw some cool animals, rays, nurse sharks, an octopus during the day, goliath groupers, file fish, squid, loads of wonderful awe-inspiring creatures, but...everyone there wears gloves and therefore touches everything. If it were up to me, as in Bonaire, dive gloves would not be allowed. No gloves and people touch less. There is so little living reef left there. Lots of wrecks which is nice if that's your thing but even on the wrecks the growth is minimal and what there is is handled constantly by fisher-folk, spear-gun people and divers.

But it is really the fishing line that bummed me out. It is everywhere. The fishing line and dying reef. It looks nothing like the photos.

Southeast Asia this past summer: I learned that I will never again travel outside the US without a painless way to euthanize cats and dogs. I especially found this to be true in Malaysia where I honestly would have put about 25 dogs and cats to sleep if I could have. I also learned that "unlimited shore diving" means something in a place like Bonaire or Monterey, but in Malaysia it means swimming in human waste for the first 5 meters of shore as there is no sewage treatment -- you flush and hear it go straight into the water underneath the toilet...lovely. All those lovely photos of Sipidan and Mabul Islands? Well, yes, I saw amazing things, some of the most incredible and humbling creatures whose presence I have ever been graced with and yet what the magazines do not show is that for every crocodile fish I saw, I also saw a large piece of plastic or other human garbage floating by. They don't show that everything outside the resort is covered with candy wrappers, plastic bags, human waste, starving animals, starving people. I have never seen so much garbage in my life as I did on Mabul Island, especially in the first 10 feet of the beach and shoreline.

And of the Philippines I could write more about dynamite fishing and how it feels to hear it underwater knowing it's just about a kilometer away and how the reef in some places looks like the aftermath of the bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

And it makes me so sad because there is little I love more than scuba diving. I find it to be the place where I feel most alive and calm. It is the purest form of meditation for me. And yet I feel so saddened by what I have seen in my travels.

As a traveler I cannot just walk by something and not feel deeply about what I have seen or experienced. I carry it with me months later. I just wish people would speak up more about what they really see down there and topside as well.

Depressing...sorry! Needed to get this off my head.

Holly