2 more divers dead on 2nd day of lobster mini-season

[tracy_from_oz]

Hi Don,

Thanks for that information.

From what i can gather it is something not needed in the states, something like the international drivers license, Which i still pay $50 dollars every year for as well. :11doh:

Its a shame we lose divers in such sad ways.

tracy

I don't think so. I've never taken either on the ocean, but I think all it takes is a credit card and legal aged ID.

Most of these accidents happen with poor divers & gear, tho - it seems.

 

[subageezer]

As a new diver I elected to forego the lobster mini season. I was to dive the Sunday before and was in my LDS for air and observed first hand a number of divers getting ready for Weds. Many wanting equipment repairs at the last minute which told me they weren't very active divers. My favorite was a gentlement with a BC with a leaky inflator hose. When the LDS advised him he didn't have one for that BC, he decided he could dive with it anyway as it wasn't that important.

As divers, we are the ones primarily responsible for our own safty. Bad decisions can spell disaster.

 

[PapaBob]

I had to look it up...

Howdy Don:

Follow this link to the bottom of the page to understand the importance of the carapace to avoid upsetting the local Crayfish Constable. CLICK HERE


---Bob

 

[Pyrofish]

We like to go to Sebastian for mini season, less people on the water because the vis is usually bad, and a thermocline seems to know exactly when the last Wed and Thurs of july are. At the lodge I stayed at, I heard some divers describing their day and it just made me cringe.

A commercial fisherman was taking his two grandsons out for mini season. The fisherman is an older non-diver, and his grandkids, probably mid 20's, looked in good shape, so no troubles there. However, as we talked about our vis findings in different depths, he told me the following, "well, we started in 15' and didn't find anything, so we moved out to 25'. Again, no decent vis and no lobsters, so we headed out to 90' on their third tanks and still didn't find anything. 60' was our last resort and we still had nothing." They had 4 tanks each, and did a terrible reverse profile. I told the old guy that you shouldn't dive in reverse like that, and he said he was no diver and that's how the kids wanted to do it.

The next day, they gave us some hints on where they heard there was the magic combo of vis and lobsters, in 80'. And the relatively warm 63F at the bottom, other places were reporting a thermo of mid 50's. We saw them just to the south of us, likely in the same depths, and somehow they each got in 3 dives in 80+' on air. We were on nitrox and still had 1:30 SI's.

Somehow, these guys beat the averages and didn't become statistics. I tried to catch them on the last day to talk to them about diving safely, but we never ran into them afterwards.

So just this one instance should tell you what kind of diver is out there mixed in for mini-season. Sebastian isn't nearly as bad as the keys, the temps are usually much colder, the vis usually terrible, and the depths are usually deeper. Imagine the kind of numbnuts they get in the keys. After a couple of years of seeing what goes on, I sometimes wonder how so few end up dead during the season. I was describing our dives for the first day to another guy and he asked me, "What's a safety stop?" I told him it's just a user-friendly name for a non-mandatory deco stop, and he said, "Oh yeah, I remember something about that. You don't actually do those do you? I just don't beat my bubbles to the surface!" ....

It boggles the mind as to how they survive year after year...
Jason

 

[Pyrofish]

I just thought of another one, from last year. My own buddy, who has been diving for longer than I've been alive went out for mini season last year. He's from a very old school of gumby divers though and his phillosophy on diving "WAS", isn't now thanks to me,

"30' max for 20 minutes, come up float around, drink a beer, down for another 20 minutes. If ya start to breath hard, you must be out of air, cause the SPG doesn't work anyhow..."

Now this is a pretty good friend, and he works for my company, so I talked at length with him about updating his gear, and getting with the game if he wanted to do the diving I was talking about doing. He's a much better diver now. However, last year, he was working the bugs and I was holding the catch bag, he ran out of friggin air on our first dive! 60' for 20 minutes, and the tank was on E. I couldn't believe it. Being a new diver, I was checking my own regularly, but assumed he'd check his own. He never looked at it once. After that I always check my buddy's air along with my own, but once again, he'd have been royaly scr--ed if I hadn't been there. So yet another way for guys to die in mini-season.
Jason

 

[maj75]

As a new diver I elected to forego the lobster mini season. I was to dive the Sunday before and was in my LDS for air and observed first hand a number of divers getting ready for Weds. Many wanting equipment repairs at the last minute which told me they weren't very active divers. My favorite was a gentlement with a BC with a leaky inflator hose. When the LDS advised him he didn't have one for that BC, he decided he could dive with it anyway as it wasn't that important.

As divers, we are the ones primarily responsible for our own safty. Bad decisions can spell disaster.

I had similar experience at my LDS. Guy come in on Saturday, says he hasn't been diving in "some time" and he wants them to check his regulator/octo assembly. They hook up a tank and it is leaking and freeflowing like crazy. He is smacking it around and it won't quit. They shut off the tank valve and try again, same thing. LDS says reg needs serviced. When they tell him it won't be ready by Wed for mini season, the guy says he needs it and will "use it like it is." Could have rented a good one from them for a few bucks.

Darwin in action:shakehead

 

[DandyDon]

I had similar experience at my LDS. Guy come in on Saturday, says he hasn't been diving in "some time" and he wants them to check his regulator/octo assembly. They hook up a tank and it is leaking and freeflowing like crazy. He is smacking it around and it won't quit. They shut off the tank valve and try again, same thing. LDS says reg needs serviced. When they tell him it won't be ready by Wed for mini season, the guy says he needs it and will "use it like it is." Could have rented a good one from them for a few bucks.

Darwin in action:shakehead

OMG! :11:

 

[TSherman]

I am shocked that 5 people can die in a season like this! As far as I know no one has died this season here off the coast of NJ. There have been accidents, but no deaths I know of. How do they get to dive if they are out of the water that long? Even the carribean resorts require a skill refresher if you are out 6 months.

If anyone has dove the mini-season and had a foolish mistake, please give someone responsible your gear and go buy a damn lobster in the store. It is probably cheaper anyway!

I am amazed at the skill level of divers from warm water environments sometimes! I was in the Keys on a boat where a woman was doing her 350th dive! She got to the "wreck" of the Bibb and had no gloves, no knife and no flashlight, and when we returned to the surface she make jokes of my gear. I have to say I was the only one with a pony bottle slung. What seemed to be extreme on that "wreck" is more a common practice on NJ/NY wrecks.

STAY SOUTH! STAY SHALLOW!

 

[ChrisA]

....could someone please help this fresh water diver understand why lobster hunting is so dangerous that 3 are dead and 1 is missing in two days?

Thanks

First off I do NOT know anything about there cases. But in general....

1) Some divers don't dive at all except to hunt lobster and so are maybe a little "rusty" at the start of the season with some months off

2) Some dvers will do dumb things like wedge themselves under a rock while trying to reach a lobster that is way back there just out of reach

3) Some are even dumber and will take the BC and tank off so they cn wedge themseves into an even smaller space

4) "same ocean" budies are comom one goes off hunting hile his buddy is head down fins up and crawlin under a rock at night

Not all lobster divers are stupid. Many are there mostly for the sport and like to watch their budies just to se how well they do and they take turns being in the lead and so on. But if the goal is to maximize the "take" then you are best off solo diving at night under rocks which is not quite so safe.

 

[ChrisA]

I don't think so. I've never taken either on the ocean, but I think all it takes is a credit card and legal aged ID.

Unless you are taking passengers for hire. You do not need any kind of license or training and there is no minimum age. Some states do have more strict rules that apply only with in their inland waters.) Some rental companies have even stricter rules, some much stricter while some will rent to anyone who can pay.