The BSO recently spoke with David Morgan, owner of Deep Blue Gear and Snorkel-Mart (our corporate sponsor for From the Depths). We wanted to know more about David and his love of the ocean.

BSO: How long have you been doing SCUBA diving, and what got you interested in the first place?

David: As a child back in the 50’s watching Lloyd Bridges in Sea Hunt, I was fascinated at the thought of learning to SCUBA Dive.  I became a certified SCUBA diver in 1981. I was living on St Thomas (US Virgin Islands) working as a salesman for a company that distributed SCUBA diving equipment throughout the Caribbean. I was offered the opportunity to become a certified diver as part of my job and I dove (pun intended) into it.

BSO: If someone was interested in getting into SCUBA diving, how would you recommend they start?

David: I recommend they do an on line SCUBA certification course for the basic knowledge development and written testing and then travel to a Caribbean destination to develop the physical skill set (using the equipment) followed by their qualifying dives.

BSO: What’s your favorite memory from a diving trip?

David: Oh I have so many, it’s hard to decide on a favorite. One humorous event occurred off a pier at Captain Don’s Habitat on Bonaire.  There was a very friendly large Tarpon (nicknamed Charlie) that just basically hung around and interacted with divers. On one dive, I saw Charlie hovering down at around 100’ seemingly attached to a large coral by a long, black line. I thought he was in trouble – might have gotten caught on a fishing line or something. I was trying to get to him to help when he gave me this look that clearly said “Can’t a fish get any privacy around here?” and then I realized he was actually relieving himself by the coral.

BSO: At least you know what tarpon poop looks like now.

David: Well, yeah, that’s not a lesson I’m likely to forget.

BSO: One of the pieces on our program, Aqua, touches on themes of pollution and environmental degradation. In your experience, what impact is this having on aquatic life?

David: To me the greatest threat to our ocean ecosystems is climate change. Higher than normal ocean temperatures, stronger, more frequent storms causing increased runoff leading to sedimentation, altered ocean currents changing ocean temperatures – all of these lead to the death of coral.  Some coral can be regrown, but some species just can’t. There are other contributing factors too, like over-diving, too many visitors going to the same spots (especially from cruise ships), and invasion of non-native species like lionfish. So much of what humans do affects coral and the reefs, which are the building blocks of the aquatic ecosystem.

BSO: Do you see any signs that we can undo or mitigate the damage that’s already been done?

David: Some people are trying to help. Bonaire has programs to decrease the lionfish population, regrow coral, has banned gloves (so divers aren’t tempted to touch/break coral), and more.