To say that our world is in an environmental crisis, is an understatement. Organizations, companies, and countries are now trying to save the environment through profit. Yes, that’s very important, but it’s not a new concept. I experienced two such enterprises, back in the early 70’s. I’m sure there were more, but apparently not enough, otherwise we wouldn’t be facing this environmental disaster.
The first came about through my first trip abroad in 1968. It was a trip to Puerto Rico, and a week at the Caribe Hilton, in San Juan. They offered a scuba diving resort course. Soon after I became a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, I became interested in diving. I would read Skin Diver Magazine, watch “Sea Hunt,” and of course “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.” Now I had a chance to experience it first-hand. A simple afternoon of basic training, and then a dive the next morning in the hotel’s own lagoon. I think about that dive. All I was equipped with, was a mask, fins, weight belt, and a tank. There were no gauges, bc’s, none of the vast array of equipment we have today. I went down to thirty or forty feet exploring the lagoon, and eventually ran out of air. I signaled the divemaster, pulled the J valve on the tank, for the extra air, and surfaced. I was completely hooked, and determined to be certified as soon as I got home. I found a dive shop in mid-town Manhattan, and started the course. Throughout the spring and summer of 1970, I was wreck diving every weekend, on boats off the New York, and New Jersey Coast. The diving was deep, usually ninety to one hundred feet. Dark, sometimes the water visibility was so low, you literately ran into the wreck. Of course, it was cold. In mid-August, the surface temperature was only in the low seventies. The bottom temperature was in the mid-to-low sixties.
Having experienced the Caribbean, I decided to spend two weeks diving in warm water. The island I found was Bonaire. It is part of the Netherlands Antilles, and is below the hurricane belt. The hotel, and I can’t remember the name, had one hundred rooms, and I was the only guest for the entire two weeks. I was diving with Captain Don Stewart’s dive operation. Since I was the only diver, all the dives were shore dives. Now here’s the point of all my rambling.
It was the vision of Captain Don, that created Bonaire into a protected underwater environment. As he told me, he had an advertising background, as I did, and he was living in California. He left in 1962, sailed down to Panama, through the cannel, then east until he came to Bonaire, where his boat sank, and he stayed. At that time, Bonaire had no tourist trade. But what they had were pristine coral reefs on the entire leeward side of the island. He convinced the government that by protecting the reefs, Bonaire could become a very profitable dive destination, which it has over the years. When I was there, there were only three or four restaurants, two of which were Chinese, and with your entre, you had a choice of rice or French fries. Now, over the eight trips that I have made since then, it is a bustling dive destination. There are hotels, condos, many more restaurants, and lots of dive operations.
My second example occurred later in the 70’s. Now that I was constantly diving every chance I got, I wanted to learn more about the environment. Particularly marine mammals. I searched the entire New York tri-state area for a course, and couldn’t find one. It was only through an advertising photo shoot, at Olana, the now New York State Historic Site, the home of artist Frederic Church, that I found my answer. The town is Hudson, NY, located about sixty miles from New York City on the Hudson River. It was a whaling town! It was settled by two brothers from Nantucket in 1783, who were looking for a safe harbor for their ships. They taught a course about marine mammals at the junior college. The course was every Friday night for a month. The culmination of the course was a long weekend trip to Provincetown, Cape Cod. There the Center for Costal Studies, gave us additional classes, and a full day of whale watching aboard the Dolphin Fleets seventy-five-foot boats.
Now here’s the “Saving the Environment Through Profit,” connection. The Dolphin Fleet’s boats were originally built for party-boat fishing, along with other fishing boats in the harbor. The Center for Costal Studies, convinced the Dolphin Fleet, that whale watching was more profitable than fishing. In exchange for letting several scientist sail with each boat, so they could take photos and document the various whales and dolphins, one scientist would explain over the boats loudspeaker to the customers, what they were watching. Additionally, we had one scientist on deck with us to answer any of our questions.
After that first experience, I was spending two weeks every year there, photographing the whales. One week in the fall, when they were very active gorging themselves before they left for the Caribbean to mate and calve. They wouldn’t eat until they returned in the spring. My second trip was of course in the spring, when they were very active again.
During one trip, I found out that the owners of the Dolphin Fleet invited whalers from Russia, to visit their operation, showing them that whale watching was more profitable that hunting, and killing them. I don’t know the outcome of that visit.
As I said in the beginning, there were probably more, but not enough.
