Lake Minnetonka fatality - Minnesota

[DandyDon]

Scuba diver dead after going missing while diving in Lake Minnetonka

According to the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, emergency officials were called out to a missing scuba diver in Maxwell Bay on Lake Minnetonka at around noon Friday. Despite attempting life-saving measures, the diver was pronounced dead at the scene.

kstp.com

Emergency crews responded to a water rescue on Lake Minnetonka in Orono Friday afternoon that ended with unsuccessful life-saving efforts.

According to the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, Hennepin County Water Patrol was called out to a missing scuba diver in Maxwell Bay on Lake Minnetonka at around noon Friday.

Another diver who had been diving with the missing scuba diver was able to locate the missing man about 30 feet from where he was last seen, according to law enforcement.

Despite life-saving measures, the male diver was pronounced dead at the scene.

Chopper 5 captured aerial video of the scene. Various emergency agencies could be seen along a dock in the area, providing assistance.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office says Long Lake Fire and the Orono Police Department also responded to the incident, which is under investigation.

 

[2airishuman]

For context

The decedent was a diver for Dive Guys, a local business specializing in removal of Eurasian Watermilfoil, an invasive plant now endemic in freshwater lakes in Minnesota and elsewhere. Dive Guys runs help wanted advertisements locally seeking SCUBA divers who are willing to engage in weed removal. In turn, they sell weed removal services to local shoreline owners who find the presence of Eurasian Watermilfoil to interfere with swimming, boating, and other enjoyment of the shoreline.

While the exact training and safety procedures involved are unclear to me, I surmise that the divers involved do not have commercial training and do not use commercial gear (i.e. surface supply and hardhat suit).

Lake Minnetonka is a relatively popular diving destination locally. The main hazard is propeller injury as there is a great deal of surface traffic. Due to this and poor summer visibility, it is common to dive the lake through the ice during the winter, when it is possible to drop onto one of the many well-preserved wrecks with GPS precision, good viz, and an absence of boat traffic.

 

[lionfish-eater]

Typically, these services remove weeds to a depth of about 8 to 10 feet.
Most of the work is done in less than 6 feet of water and anything less than 4 feet is done without any scuba gear.
A 4 person crew is typical, with most of the grunt work being hauling the weeds from the lake shore to the truck for disposal.
The workers use recreational gear, sometimes just a mask, reg and tank.



This is my local lake.
I was on the lake yesterday and some bays were very windy.
I was in North Arm, next bay over from Maxwell and there were whitecaps and strong gusts.
Not sure if this had anything to do with the death.

 

[SlugLife]

While the exact training and safety procedures involved are unclear to me, I surmise that the divers involved do not have commercial training and do not use commercial gear (i.e. surface supply and hardhat suit).

This may be a little "nit picky." Surface-supply would seem to be more about extending a dive, than dive-safety, and potentially add entanglement hazards. At the depths described, I'd probably stick with a standard back-mount, or even side-mount for easy tank-swaps.

That said, the potential lack of commercial-training could be a thread worth pulling on.

I recently started watching some videos by "Adventures with Purpose" and similar YouTube channels, where they look for lost people/vehicles underwater, and sometimes assist in vehicle-recovery. I've noticed them diving beyond their training multiple times times, which has significantly contributed to a couple incidents. So far, I've seen them have an out-of-air incident once, lost a full-face-mask another time, lost fins twice, and gotten tangled with recovery ropes. I'm fairly certain they lack full-face-mask training, and lack any commercial training.

They typically spin this as "we're doing dangerous recoveries because it's a noble cause." I'm no "certification stickler," but IMO, these activities easily can be done safely with appropriate training, and it seems silly to not pursue at least some basic relevant training if you're regularly doing a commercial or commercial-like activity regularly.

 

[2airishuman]

Local reports indicate that the decedent did not have dive training.

 

[Marie13]

Yi

Local reports indicate that the decedent did not have dive training.

Yikes

 

[SlugLife]

Local reports indicate that the decedent did not have dive training.

"Well I'll be damned!"

That explains it. You have a business who employs divers who .... not only lack commercial training, but ANY dive training at all. I expect to see lawsuits rolling in soon.

I'm just imagining a diver, over-weighted to make weed-pulling easier, 8 feet deep, pulling weeds, knocks the regulator out of their mouth, can't find primary or backup, isn't prepared to inflate BCD or ditch weights, swallows some water and drowns. Something 99.5% of certified divers should be able to handle in multiple ways, even if they're out of practice. Losing a reg would be real easy if you're out pulling/cutting weeds.

And we haven't even gotten to commercial training yet.

 

[kaylee_ann]

Local reports indicate that the decedent did not have dive training.

so I had "friends"-non divers- who constantly picked on me for not having dived yet. they were like "if you wanna dive so bad, just go dive". didn't think any training was necessary.
I'll be sending them this link.

 

[Cthippo]

To be fair, let's be sure we understand what happened before drawing conclusions from it.

 

[SlugLife]

To be fair, let's be sure we understand what happened before drawing conclusions from it.

If we're going to be very precise, we're dealing with probabilities here, and it's certainly possible those local-reports about him having no dive training are false. It's not like fake-news or rumors are a rare thing.

After viewing many of these incidents-turned-accidents threads, I've found a "rule of 3s" usually applies. Essentially, for an incident to become an accident, it usually involves 3 simultaneous problems or ignoring standard safety practices to happen all at the same time. One or two at a time is often survivable.

For example, in your open-water class, they teach you equipment checks, to monitor your air, etc. They also teach you about retrieving regulators knocked out of your mouth, emergency-ascents, and dropping weights. They also put you through a number of drills, including air-sharing. Lastly, all the agencies teach OW students "always dive with a buddy."

Modern scuba is all about redundancy, which can take different forms including training, planning, buddies, and equipment. Some "rules" can be broken, such as solo-diving, but solo-divers tend to add a bunch of redundancy and use extra caution.