Posted by John on July 21, 19100 at 12:52:12:
In Reply to: preserve bouys posted by charlie on July 21, 19100 at 02:10:04:
: was wondering what everyone elses feeling are on the placement of wreck bouys in the preserves. It seems to me that they could be placed out there earlier in the year. I was up at Whitefish on the 4th of july and only a few wrecks were bouyed, one with an antifreeze bottle and another with just a floating rope and no bottle,another that was suppose to be bouyed had no bouy at all. Other preserves are the same way. I wonder if this whole process of bouying needs to be reevaluated, like who does them and when do they do them should there be an official opening day of diving like trout season hahaha...what do you think , thanks Charlie
It's my understanding that the Michigan preserves are run by volunteers and there is very little if any funding for them. What would probably help the most is for interested and concerned people like yourself to get directly involved and become an active member of one of the preserves. I don't live or regularly dive in Michigan, but my experience with their preserves is that there are very few people, and in some cases mainly just one person, who puts in hundreds of hours of their own time to organize events, raise money, and do all the administrative work and politicking to make their local preserve possible. The state isn't going to provide the funds or the leadership to make the preserves as effective as we might like them to be, so it is up to all of us divers to get directly involved and give of our own time and money to support, enhance, and preserve our great local wreck diving. Perhaps someone involved with the Michigan Underwater Preserves could post information on how everyone can get involved or at least offer their financial support. For the people who don't live in Michigan, you probably have some kind of local organization that also needs your help. In Canada and Ohio, SOS is a great group to get involved with and support. In Wisconsin, WUAA is actually run by their State's Underwater Archeologist and they have lots of great volunteer opportunities. In Illinois, the UASC is very active in promoting and preserving shipwreck diving and they also do some great presentations on shipwreck history. In Minnesota, the GLSPS is actually reconstructing and stabilizing some great wrecks so that they can continue to be safely dived and enjoyed for years to come. All these groups install and maintain buoys which is a very expensive and time consuming job. Going out and doing buoy installations is the fun part of their volunteer efforts. What most people never see nor appreciate are the many hours of fund raising and administrative type crap that make all the visible benefits possible. Sure these groups are all far from perfect, but what they do accomplish is done so by divers like you and I volunteering our time, skills and money. We all get a lot from shipwreck diving, but it could be a lot better if more of us gave something back to the sport. I hope my ranting isn't perceived as a criticism of Charlie or anyone else. It certainly wasn't intended to be. I just wanted to share my perspective.