TSandM: Missing Diver in Clallam County, WA

[wedivebc]

Six weeks ago a disappearance eerily similar to this one occurred at Race Rocks, several miles east of where this one happened. Ironically, they found that young man's body just a couple days ago.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Do you know where he was found?

 

[PeterNBiddle]

I understand that it would be difficult now, but I was actually asking about that day. Since it was particularly flat and there were other divers on the boat. My gut reaction would be, let's go find her!!

It's a matter of minutes between rescue and recovery under water. Once there's no chance of air being left in her tanks there's no particular urgency in finding her, when contrasted with the very particular urgency of finding her on the surface, where she could be alive and suffering from injuries or exposure.

So I think it's all hands on deck searching the surface in this scenario. Anyone under the water is someone not searching the only place she could still be alive.




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---------- Post added August 28th, 2015 at 08:27 AM ----------

Do you know where he was found?

Thinking of heading out in a boat?


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[Doug Charney]

I'm not suggesting that no one scan the surface, that would be silly. The Coast guard was on hand in 10 minutes, they had the surface covered. I disagree that there shouldn't be urgency to find someone whether they are alive or dead. Both are important. If that was my loved one, I would want her back either way.

 

[boulderjohn]

Do you know where he was found?

Seven weeks on, body of missing diver found near Race Rocks

 

[gcbryan]

It's a matter of minutes between rescue and recovery under water. Once there's no chance of air being left in her tanks there's no particular urgency in finding her, when contrasted with the very particular urgency of finding her on the surface, where she could be alive and suffering from injuries or exposure.

So I think it's all hands on deck searching the surface in this scenario. Anyone under the water is someone not searching the only place she could still be alive.




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---------- Post added August 28th, 2015 at 08:27 AM ----------



Thinking of heading out in a boat?


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This brings up an interesting point (to me). General protocol for most groups/agencies is to not create two victims and to therefore not go back down to search for someone only to have them appear on the surface and now you potentially have a different victim.

The logic is also as you have suggested. There's little you can do for one underwater, etc.

On the other hand, the only person who can potentially help someone who is underwater is the person who is already there and suited up. You do whatever you already agreed to do before the dive but with my regular diving buddies if it was a new (or especially challenging site) we agreed to waiting on the surface for 5 minutes and then go and search if that was a reasonable and safe thing to do.

It never got to that but I think it's a reasonable option that isn't generally embraced (for the reasons that you mention).

 

[Akimbo]

There aren’t too many entrapment scenarios like the ones played out in Sea Hunt episodes. The high currents in that area may well be an exception but the absence of bubbles on the surface is a pretty ominous sign that a successful underwater rescue isn’t hopeful.

 

[boulderjohn]

This brings up an interesting point (to me). General protocol for most groups/agencies is to not create two victims and to therefore not go back down to search for someone only to have them appear on the surface and now you potentially have a different victim.

The logic is also as you have suggested. There's little you can do for one underwater, etc.

On the other hand, the only person who can potentially help someone who is underwater is the person who is already there and suited up. You do whatever you already agreed to do before the dive but with my regular diving buddies if it was a new (or especially challenging site) we agreed to waiting on the surface for 5 minutes and then go and search if that was a reasonable and safe thing to do.

It never got to that but I think it's a reasonable option that isn't generally embraced (for the reasons that you mention).

In addition to the above, you really don't know where to look. With ANY sort of current and a reasonably buoyant diver, that person could drift a very long way. When a diver died during the U-Boat search described in Shadow Divers, his body was discovered purely by accident about 5 miles from the site of his death. The odds of finding the diver on the bottom are therefore extremely remote.

In addition, if you do by some miracle find the diver on the bottom, the odds of a positive outcome are about nil. In the only cases I know of in which an unconscious diver was brought to the surface and revived, the surfacing process began immediately after the diver became unconscious.

 

[gcbryan]

In addition to the above, you really don't know where to look. With ANY sort of current and a reasonably buoyant diver, that person could drift a very long way. When a diver died during the U-Boat search described in Shadow Divers, his body was discovered purely by accident about 5 miles from the site of his death. The odds of finding the diver on the bottom are therefore extremely remote.

In addition, if you do by some miracle find the diver on the bottom, the odds of a positive outcome are about nil. In the only cases I know of in which an unconscious diver was brought to the surface and revived, the surfacing process began immediately after the diver became unconscious.

I agree the odds aren't good although for finding the body they are better than your scenario suggests. Not looking has a 100% failure rate rather than just poor odds.

I'm not suggesting a "proper" course of action in this particular case. I wasn't there.

The structure does increase the odds that a body could stay local however.

Your example at Race Rocks would seem to support my argument as well.

 

[Akimbo]

I agree the odds aren't good although for finding the body they are better than your scenario suggests. Not looking has a 100% failure rate rather than just poor odds...

True, but you have to remember the narrow windows of safe diving in this unique area. Tidal flow though San Francisco's Golden Gate is infamous. The Strait is as bad or worse. A diver lost that close to the mouth of the Strait could end up anywhere inside the Sound or miles offshore and heading south in the current. A properly weighted incapacitated diver doesn't just sink to the bottom and sit there.

In this case, an underwater search would be very high risk with the odds of a successful recovery being in the miraculous category.

 

[beaverdivers]

Nice article about Lynne in today's Seattle Times.
Accomplished Woodinville diver missing off Cape Flattery | The Seattle Times

I believe this quote brings to light the true adventure of our sport and the enthusiasm Lynne had for it.

"On Monday, 61-year-old Lynne Flaherty wrote a Facebook post boasting about the fun she’d had on her first day of diving near Duncan Rock, off the northwest coast of Washington.Flaherty, who friends describe as a marine-biology enthusiast, had spotted Puget Sound king crabs, tiger rockfish and “clouds of krill so thick they were like silt.” On the surface, she had watched gray whales breach.

“This trip is meeting and surpassing all my expectations,” the Woodinville woman wrote. “We’ll be back!”

The next day doing the same dive site this tragic incident occurred. No doubt, Lynne went missing doing what she loved.