Reef Hooks
A reef hook is a stainless steel hook, coupled to about 1.5mtrs of stout nylon rope knotted every 30cm (for grip) and fitted with a nyloc squeeze clip (emergency release) before the D ring clip. The purpose is to keep you in place, protect the reef and let you relax and watch the action. It is important however to regain neutral buoyancy before unhooking!!
On many tropical reefs all the action is at the current point. For example, observing sharks from the edge of a fast-flow channel between atolls (sharks prefer the fast flowing water – more oxygen to the gills, less effort). In Maldives channel diving, you enter a long way up current then descend and drift onto the current point. The current can be so strong that if you turn your head it will take your mask off. However if you want to stay there and watch the action, you can either grab onto the reef, which can actually be hard work and can be very damaging as your fins and other items attached to your BCD will touch the reef. or you can use a reef hook. Find a piece of dead and strong coral and hook up, then you can hover in the current above the reef with no effort. A reef hook in this circumstance is a lot better than grabbing at coral, provided you place it carefully. We applaud the concern for the health of the coral that many divers have. Theoretically, the hooks are only used on dead coral. There probably wouldn’t be such a ready supply of dead coral if not for eager divers, but it is probably also true that there would be more damage without the hooks.
