Out of 27 diving fatalties since 2010, 17 have been foreign tourists

[Storker]

Google translated article here. Unfortunately, the translation is a bit buggy, but I think it should be possible to get the general idea.

tl;dr version:
Since 2010, there have been 27 diving fatalities in Norway. Out of those 27, 17 were foreign citizens coming to Norway to dive. That's a pretty gross over-representation, as there are between 10,000 and 20,000 active divers in Norway.



My own thoughts:
I've been following the accident reports in out media for the last ~3 years, and it seems as if the majority of foreign citizens losing their life diving in Norway are pretty advanced divers. Without doing a formal count, my impression is that people die on deep wrecks or other deco dives, and of course we have the infamous Plura fatalities last year. This is a bit shocking, since those who die should be seasoned divers, with lots of experience. Is it complacency? Is it an underestimation of the conditions we have? One of the owners of the fairly well known diving center in Gulen (Western Norway) states unequivocally that foreign divers generally need more guidance, are taking bigger risks and don't listen to local experience. We hear anecdotes about tourists not even knowing the emergency services number (FYI, the number for medical emergencies, including diving accidents, is 113, but if you call the (pan-European) general emergency number 112, they will transfer you to the right place).

The downside of this is that the police are arguing for tighter control of diving, particularly foreign tourist diving. If we were to mandate guiding for tourists, the dive centers would probably benefit, but the way we dive here (independent buddy pairs, no DM/guide in the water, personal responsibility for planning and conducting the dive) may well lose in the long run. I'd really hate having to follow a guide on every dive I go on with a commercial op, I much prefer the current model consisting of a taxi ride, a site briefing and a head count.

For any of you considering a diving trip close to the Arctic circle (which may well be a terrific idea!), please remember that conditions here will probably be different from the conditions you are used to from back home. You may be a heck of a diver in your own waters, but our conditions and challenges will probably be different from what you're used to. Listen to the locals, use our dive centers (most of them are very knowledgeable about the local conditions and can offer fantastic diving) and stay safe. And remember that around here, if you put on a suit and strap on a tank, you are assumed by default to be competent enough to evaluate, plan and conduct a dive without hand-holding. When you splash, you're on your (and your buddy's) own.

---------- Post added October 2nd, 2015 at 02:02 PM ----------

BTW, don't, DON'T let economy influence your decision about whether or not you should call emergency services. Those things are paid for by our tax money, and unless there's obvious gross negligence, we'll be footing the bill, not you. We'll even cover your chamber ride and the helicopter trip to the nearest chamber. And bring a GPS. It's a lot easier to find you out there in the boonies if you have a set of coordinates to give the nice lady at the 113 call center

 

[Akimbo]

I think fatalities of divers unfamiliar with the local area is a common problem worldwide. It may be more apparent in Norway because they are holding a different passport and you have lots of coastline relative to the population. Granted, the problem is exacerbated by more severe conditions than many other areas.

We see the same problem in Northern California, mostly Scuba divers visiting Monterey and Abalone divers (freedivers by law) along the north coast. A lot of people have a mental picture of all California diving being the same. It is a very different ocean north of Pt. Conception and gets more pronounced as the latitude increases.

It would be interesting to drill-down in the statistics you mention to see if the divers come from areas with the same or colder water temperatures. Diving a drysuit in 10°C/50°F water is not the same as the 1-3°C/mid-high 30°F range.

It has been decades since I did any recreational diving in Norway but I recall that virtually all was inside the fjords. Aside from accelerated tidal currents, conditions seemed relatively benign compared to the UK. Could it be that some of the divers used to open-sea conditions farther south in the North Sea were underestimating the conditions due to the relatively calm surface conditions? Interesting, thanks for posting.

Edit: Emergency services in the US is 911, but you better have DAN insurance unless you want to pay the bill.

 

[Storker]

It would be interesting to drill-down in the statistics you mention to see if the divers come from areas with the same or colder water temperatures. Diving a drysuit in 10°C/50°F water is not the same as the 1-3°C/mid-high 30°F range.

It has been decades since I did any recreational diving in Norway but I recall that virtually all was inside the fjords. Aside from accelerated tidal currents, conditions seemed relatively benign compared to the UK. Could it be that some of the divers used to open-sea conditions farther south in the North Sea were underestimating the conditions due to the relatively calm surface conditions? Interesting, thanks for posting.

IIRC, British divers are highly represented among the fatalities. That was a bit shocking to me, since I don't see a fundamental difference between British and Norwegian diving. The fjords are decent, but the really good diving is at the coast, at least if you're a nature diver. For wrecks, we have quite a few - allegedly, I haven't dived them - quite nice WW2 ones in a couple of the fjords. But viz (and life) is generally better at the coast.

Edit: Emergency services in the US is 911, but you better have DAN insurance unless you want to pay the bill.

I think that if you tried to dial 911 (or even the UK emergency number, 999) in Norway, your call would be transferred to 112.

112 is the general emergency number in all of Western Europe.

 

[boulderjohn]

I think it is logical that there would be a large percentage of more advanced divers among the foreign visitors. The dive shop where I work does a HUGE business with tourist diving trips for our customers, the overwhelming majority of which are vacation divers in the low to medium experience range. All of the trips are to tropical resorts, and if I were to suggest that we try to sell a trip to Norway, that suggestion would be met with laughter. People who are planning to spend their dive vacation in Norway will tend to be experienced divers. I'm pretty experienced, but I have never considered a Norwegian dive vacation.

These experienced divers are not likely to plan the trip around the most benign diving available. They are probably looking for something more adventurous.

Did the study look at the ages of the divers? The DAN studies of fatalities has shown that one of the key factors in dive fatalities in general is age. The average dive fatality victim is relatively old, and that average has been creeping up. Those averages include all divers in their study, which includes relatively inexperienced divers. My guess is that the average age of highly experienced divers will be higher than the average age of the general diving population.

Put that all together, and I would expect that the average tourist diver in Norway would be an older, more experienced diver seeking more challenging dives than the average native Norwegian diver. That would make that average diver more prone to becoming a fatality.

Please note that I said average; there will of course be many exceptions.

 

[Akimbo]

… Put that all together, and I would expect that the average tourist diver in Norway would be an older, more experienced diver seeking more challenging dives than the average native Norwegian diver…

Not necessarily. UK divers already have appropriate gear and can travel to Norway via ferry so don’t have the travel weight and volume restrictions.

 

[boulderjohn]

Not necessarily. UK divers already have appropriate gear and can travel to Norway via ferry so don’t have the travel weight and volume restrictions.

..and as I said...

Please note that I said average; there will of course be many exceptions.

 

[Akimbo]

John, I was thinking of the average diver in the UK rather than worldwide or in US flyover country.

 

[bilsant]

...but I think it should be possible to get the general idea.

Keep our tourist riff raff who don't even know your emergency phone system from showing up, doing challenging dives without paying attention to the locals, and inconsiderately dying - thereby messing up your sh*t and sticking you with the bill.



Got it.

 

[Storker]

tourist riff raff [...]
inconsiderately dying [...]
sticking you with the bill.

You got THAT tone from it?

You might want to re-tune your aggression detector. It shows false readings.

OTOH, if this is a general example of how you interpret other people's concern for your life, it might be a good idea to stay home. Behind locked doors.


--
Sent from my Android phone
Typos are a feature, not a bug

 

[KenGordon]

Not necessarily. UK divers already have appropriate gear and can travel to Norway via ferry so don’t have the travel weight and volume restrictions.

There isn't a ferry any more unfortunately. Thank EasyJet etc. One way is to get on a dive boat in Scotland and go over like that. Obviously flying is a proper pain with the sort of kit you'd want to take.

Only the really serious do Norway as the logistics are hard. They are not going there to do 20m bimbles any more than they would Scapa or Malin Head.

The way it is presented here is that Norway maybe slightly colder and have more complicated water density than the UK but otherwise it should be pretty similar, hopefully with better viz of course.

What is the country of origin breakdown of those 17. What sort of dives were they doing?