I think the whole agitation about which site novice divers were diving and with who is a distraction from the likely root cause of any issues that might occur while diving in such a situation, which would seem to be inadequate training and insufficient knowledge of the dive conditions. Every training agency teaches their divers that the individual is responsible for making sure their dive skills are sufficient for the conditions they plan to dive in. There are tons of sources of information about dive sites on Cozumel, and almost every one I have ever seen refers to Santa Rosa Wall as a difficult and challenging dive requiring moderate to advanced skill level. We can whine and cry all day about why the operators took "cruise ship divers" to such a difficult site, but that really starts by assuming that the cruise ship divers are somehow different than other divers and should be held to some lower expectation of knowledge and training.
Last time I checked, a PADI OW card held by a land-based diver meant they had the same level of training as a cruise ship diver holding a PADI OW card. So why is it that we expect something different from the operator serving the cruise ship than we do from the typical cattle boat operator on Coz serving a big resort hotel? Why do we expect the land-based diver to know the dive sites and the cruise ship diver to be oblivious? It isn't like the cruise ship dragged them out of bed by surprise, dropped a BC on them, and threw them in the water with no idea where they were...cruise ship divers plan these trips in advance just like land-based divers do, and have plenty of time to read up on Cozumel conditions and dive sites. They have the ability to tell the DM they want a site suitable for beginners, and when he says "Santa Rosa Wall" or "Devil's Throat", they can say no, my skills aren't up to that. It is the individual that has the responsibility to understand their skill level and to understand where they are being taken to dive, regardless of whether they are on a ship or staying in a hotel.
This was a tragic circumstance, but it is clear as more details are coming out that training was a factor in this incident. If a diver has a weight belt wrapped around them such that it can't be easily ditched, they are ignoring their training (or were poorly trained). In buddy system diving, when you lose your buddy, you search for one minute, then surface and get help. If the diver lost contact with a buddy who was calling the dive, and then continued the dive without making sure they were safe and that he had a buddy in the group, that is poor training. I understand and remember being a new diver and thinking the DM was the ultimate authority, but I was also fortunate enough to have an instructor who told us some "case study" type stories where DMs made bad mistakes and divers who blindly followed got hurt too. If a DM found out a diver in the group was missing or had ascended without a buddy and continued the dive, that is bad training on the DM's part.
There are obviously alot of scenarios we can all go through about what might have ultimately happened here, but it just really bugs me to see the blanket assumption that cruise ship divers are morons who need more hand-holding simply because of the means by which they arrived on the island. I hate cruise ships in general as much as anybody who has seen what they have done to quiet paradises across the Caribbean, but we don't do scubadiving as a sport any favors by segregating what we expect from divers based on their type of transportation. A diver is a diver is a diver, regardless of how they get there, and they all should know enough about where they plan to dive to know whether they are capable of diving there safely.
