Darnold9999
Contributor
Would be hard for a boat to speed off - with the anchor that just missed you on the bottom.
This is going to be unpopular on a dive board, but as I see it the problem is the divers centric view of the world. By that I mean - of course every boater should know about diving and where divers dive and what the risks of hitting them are.
The reality is that non divers have absolutely no idea what divers do and where they might be on the water. At best they might be aware of a dive flag and know enough to stay away. Without some kind of surface support or flag the idea that a non diver would make the connection between people in rubber suits on shore and a few bubble patches on the surface and someone swimming below their boat is a huge stretch.
You say "waters known to be populated with divers" - around here that describes exactly two locations (Whytecliff and Porteau Cove) and both are well marked on charts and one is surrounded by marker bouys. Outside of these two locations there are no "waters known to be populated with divers", around here anyway. Most boaters/people wouldn't even consider divers as a possibility - just doesn't enter their thoughts. Why would it? Diving is done by a very small number of people on a very very small part of the ocean.
Such a minor sport that happens on the fringes of the ocean and is rarely, if ever, seen. The PNW is a hotbed of divers and I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen another diver in the water from my boat, and I spend weeks at a time on it in the summer - sometimes days at a time within hailing distance from one of the artificial wrecks that many here dive on.
Divers are just not a significant concern except in very unusual situations - and unless they are really paying attention and notice, this unusual situation will not even enter into most boater's minds. Why would a boater even know that a specific location was a popular one for divers???? Whytecliff as a local example is a site I pass pretty regularly (one leaving and once returning from virtually every trip.) and is probably the most popular site around here to teach divers. The one place I HAVE seen divers from my boat, but even then pretty rare to actually see divers. I need to go by at the same time that someone is both out of the water but not yet out of their gear. A very small window of time.
Not saying that it is OK for a boater to drop an anchor on a cloud of bubbles, just that it is a bad idea to assume that a boater will have any idea at all that you are there. And unless you have some kind of surface support/flag to indicate that you are below it is extremely unlikely that a boater will even think about the possibility.

This is going to be unpopular on a dive board, but as I see it the problem is the divers centric view of the world. By that I mean - of course every boater should know about diving and where divers dive and what the risks of hitting them are.
The reality is that non divers have absolutely no idea what divers do and where they might be on the water. At best they might be aware of a dive flag and know enough to stay away. Without some kind of surface support or flag the idea that a non diver would make the connection between people in rubber suits on shore and a few bubble patches on the surface and someone swimming below their boat is a huge stretch.
You say "waters known to be populated with divers" - around here that describes exactly two locations (Whytecliff and Porteau Cove) and both are well marked on charts and one is surrounded by marker bouys. Outside of these two locations there are no "waters known to be populated with divers", around here anyway. Most boaters/people wouldn't even consider divers as a possibility - just doesn't enter their thoughts. Why would it? Diving is done by a very small number of people on a very very small part of the ocean.
Such a minor sport that happens on the fringes of the ocean and is rarely, if ever, seen. The PNW is a hotbed of divers and I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen another diver in the water from my boat, and I spend weeks at a time on it in the summer - sometimes days at a time within hailing distance from one of the artificial wrecks that many here dive on.
Divers are just not a significant concern except in very unusual situations - and unless they are really paying attention and notice, this unusual situation will not even enter into most boater's minds. Why would a boater even know that a specific location was a popular one for divers???? Whytecliff as a local example is a site I pass pretty regularly (one leaving and once returning from virtually every trip.) and is probably the most popular site around here to teach divers. The one place I HAVE seen divers from my boat, but even then pretty rare to actually see divers. I need to go by at the same time that someone is both out of the water but not yet out of their gear. A very small window of time.
Not saying that it is OK for a boater to drop an anchor on a cloud of bubbles, just that it is a bad idea to assume that a boater will have any idea at all that you are there. And unless you have some kind of surface support/flag to indicate that you are below it is extremely unlikely that a boater will even think about the possibility.