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SPRING 2012
I
n thinking about the ocean lately, I’m reminded of
an old ad campaign for Rolling Stone magazine. The
magazine was struggling against a perception that their
readers were impoverished, degenerate hippies. But their
demographic studies showed affluent, educated professionals
were their core readership: That was the reality they wanted
potential advertisers to understand.
Walking the floor at the Our World-Underwater
consumer dive show in Chicago this past February, I saw a
refreshingly high percentage of young people out gathering
information about scuba diving — how to get certified,
where to go on a dive vacation, how to learn more about
underwater photography and where to buy the tools to
facilitate their newfound hobby. This was a vast audience
of inexperienced divers eager to take their personal giant
strides into adventures new to them. It was a motivated
group of fledgling divers out to build their own new realities,
their own baselines of what the coral reef might be to them.
In contrast to this was the Saturday night film festival,
where veteran photographers and cinematographers
presented exquisite visuals that spoke to the many
challenges our oceans face today. After talk of ocean
acidification, shark finning and overfishing, I left
the auditorium just a little depressed. I admired the
productions greatly but was left with the perception that
we are at the tipping point for marine conservation. The
message is absolutely valid, but it left me wondering how
we who have seen the decline in the ocean over the course
of our diving careers reconcile our vision with those who
are seeing it for the first time.
Coincidentally, I just saw a video on this very subject
with some interesting observations by Scuba Diving Hall
of Famers Ron and Valerie Taylor. They spoke of the
concept of shifting baselines, positing that what they had
known as the coral reef when they began diving 50 years
ago was substantially different than the baseline known to
a 17-year-old on the liveaboard tour they were taking of
Indonesia’s Komodo National Marine Park. The Australian
teenager commented that although very few of his peers
were into diving, after connecting with the underwater
world guided by two such impassioned champions of the
sea, he came away newly inspired.
GO ONLINE!
See the bonus video at
www.AlertDiver.com/Shifting_Baselines.
Shifting Baselines:
Perception Versus Reality
b y S t e P h e N F R I N k
MA R K O D I M I T R I J E V I C
FROM THE SAFETY STOP
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P U B L I S H E R ’ S N O T E