Aggressor II to Galapagos - DO NOT GO ON IT.
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She died during the check-out dive? Now that is sad. But rather odd as well. Apparently she had no buddy and even with 60' viz, managed to get separated from the DM and the rest of the group?
Here's another for your collection. This guy was also from Texas. Maybe they should just ban Texans?
CDNN :: Galapagos Scuba Accident Kills Texas Financier Dennis Joslin
And that's all I can find. Sounds pretty safe to me.
Angry is the one who used all CAPS as in DO NOT GO ON IT. Sorry you had a bad trip, but demanding that no one else go on what I consider to be one of the best liveaboards I've ever been on seems rather petty. Sure, report on the negatives, and others can make up their own minds. But DO NOT GO ON IT is liable to provoke an equally heated response and make some of us with far more liveaboard experience and who thoroughly enjoyed their Galapagos Aggressor II trip question the reviewer's motivations.
I compare my June 2004 incredible trip on the Galapagos Aggressor II, not only with my far less positive boat experience on a 10-day Sky Dancer trip in August 2007, but with other week-plus experiences on the Palau Aggressor, the Turks & Caicos Aggressor, the Okeanos Aggressor, the Tahiti Aggressor, the Nekton Pilot, the Truk Odyssey, the M/Y Anggun, the Kararu Voyager, and the Horizon. Of the 90 days spent on those boats, I rate the 7 days I spent on the GA II as some of the best in service, DM professionalism, and food quality. (And lest you think my name is Wayne as you commented previously, I'll have you know that the bottom two on my list are Okeanos Aggressor and the Tahiti Aggressor.)
Here's my last words: Aggressor II to Galapagos - GO ON IT!
Relativity check, again:
In the good old days, sailors would take the tortoises and store them upside down on their ships without food or water until it was their time to be eaten. Now those at the Darwin Center are fed healthy diets and have a nice place to roam around without having to worry about becoming someone's lunch, whereas in places like Grand Cayman, you can eat turtle fritters and turtle soup. Why is Ramiro's behavior any worse than making faces at a monkey in a zoo? Why is it any worse than chasing down whalesharks under water in order to take pictures of them? In fact, how do you know that the tortoise doesn't like the attention? It looks as happy as any of the other tortoises with that big smile. Look at the frown on this guy, for instance:
Stichus III
Contributor
The signs posted all over the sanctuary clearly said, in English and Spanish, to not go on the platform, and to not disturb the turtles. That means you don't go on the platform, and you don't disturb the turtles.
After they were hunted nearly to extinction (a man-made problem), that is all the more reason to respect and cherish them. It was not so much the act of waving his hands, making noises, knocking on the shell- it was the blatant disregard of the posted rules at the sanctuary.
A whale shark can swim away, but then of course it runs the risk of being hit with a boat prop. A monkey in a zoo cannot escape. But these examples have nothing to do with what Ramiro did.
After they were hunted nearly to extinction (a man-made problem), that is all the more reason to respect and cherish them. It was not so much the act of waving his hands, making noises, knocking on the shell- it was the blatant disregard of the posted rules at the sanctuary.
A whale shark can swim away, but then of course it runs the risk of being hit with a boat prop. A monkey in a zoo cannot escape. But these examples have nothing to do with what Ramiro did.
Signs clearly posted all over the highways here indicate speed limits of 55-65 mph, yet I see people going 75 all the time. Go figure.
Personally, had I seen another tourist do it, I would have complained immediately to the relevant authority figure. I love ratting out fellow tourists when they're flaunting the local rules.
However, if it were the guide doing it, I'd assume it's his own ass if he gets caught or else he knows what he's doing and/or has permission. Don't those guys have to undergo lots of training to become guides and have some sort of permit in order to work as a guide in the Galapagos? Surely he wouldn't jeopardize all that training and his permit just in the hope of potentially getting a better tip (which is split between all the crew anyway) unless he were insane. Maybe he used to work at the Darwin Center and knows that turtles actually like having their shells knocked on just like dogs like having their heads patted?
For the record, on my Sky Dancer trip, we were given the usual spiel about not touching the whale sharks prior to our first dive at Darwin. However, at least one DM would break that rule by touching (not grabbing) the sharks, flicking remoras off its tail, etc. Monkey see, monkey do. Soon we were all caressing the sharks and flicking off their remoras. Woe to those poor harrassed sharks, they'll probably be as scarred for life as the tortoise whose shell was knocked.
But that's probably not the reassuring "hey, it's only the bad Aggressor guys, everyone else plays by the rules" comment you wanted to hear, right? I thought the DMs on my Aggressor trip were all far more professional than at least one DM on the Peter Hughes boat.
DiveTheGalapagos
Contributor
The only additional information I heard was that she was recovered at 70 m by a fisherman and had 1800 psi in her tank. This was the first dive of the trip, after the check dive the previous day.
It's always so hard to imagine how things like this happen, but especially at N. Seymour where the 'reef' (rocks) are always visible on your left. I've felt some strong current there at the northeast corner, but...??? Like any accident, no doubt there will be lots of speculation, but rarely real information. How unimaginably awful...so young.
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