Hi Tucker,, I got my BSAC around 40 years ago, I have helped to run Deeper Blue forums for the last 12 years.
To be honest I never really felt totally relaxed scuba diving so I have concentrated on free diving and spearfishing.
I live in Guernsey, we have a huge amount of inshore and offshore wrecks and some of the strongest tides in the World to boot!
Second World War wrecks are very popular dives, there are lots of them too!
My brother was a professional scuba spear fisherman, I was boatman most weekends, there were around ten full time spear fisherman in the island 20years ago, now there are none!
Massive, none selective, over fishing has killed our little niche industry but wreck diving is becoming extreamly popular and there are quite a few dive boats specialising in that aspect now.
In my life as a diver, I have witnessed the shocking decline of fish stocks to the extent we see now... a sea so devoid of fish it makes me weep.
In the 80s there were so many sand eels that they could block your vision for minutes on end, wrasse were like friendly under water cats seen everywhere, bass were so numerous and flatfish paved the sandy bays.
Now we can see huge industrial pair trawlers just three miles from our coast,
Not so long ago we (Guernsey) operated a 12 mile fishing limit, our fish stocks were protected and abundant but the British government and the French took to the European courts and found a way to deny our rights!
It took but a few days before we saw the fist massive trawlers appear, the rest is history.