Angler charged after pulling up diver

[dadediver]

I think the dive flags defeats the purpose of a combat diver.

 

[tracydr]

This is why I won't use a dive flag except for classes (where I have to), and only in very protected waters where boaters don't generally go. Dive flags are dangerous, because there is little to no enforcement against boaters who choose to violate them. And as often as not, dive flags don't warn boaters away ... they attract them. Until that changes, laws requiring their use are only endangering divers.

If this woman had not used a dive flag, this accident would not have happened.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Yesterday, we went diving in Lake Pleasant. (Jax, hubby and I). The regular dive spot was closed off and we were directed to a small cove with a parking lot and boat ramp around the corner outside the cove (close). There were two or three dive classes going on with several flags in the cove.
Apparently, this is a favorite beach ramp for those who don't want to wait in line for the regular ramp. While Jax and I were doing our last dive, my husband stopped 3-4 people from unloading their boats or jet skis into the cove, right next to the flags. He politely explained the 100 yard distance required by state law, (cove was much smaller than 100yds) and suggested they go to the adjacent boat ramp. He also explained that there were several dive classes with many divers under the surface and how they could injure/kill a diver, even with a large sailboat/no motor. (head injury) I can tell you that my husband was very polite although getting progressively more frustrated by the minute. The instructors for the classes were anything but polite and yelled at quite a few more boaters.
You can imagine the idiotic and even hateful comments some of those boaters gave him. Some just gave a deer in the headlights look and continued to unload boats, to which my husband would let them know that he would take down their license and report them. Other boaters (already in the water) were entering from the back of the cove ( the nearby boat ramp had a backup so boaters were coming around the corner to use this cove as an alternate loading ramp). We would yell to the boaters that they needed to stay one hundred yards from the flags, to get out of the cove, everything. Many simply kept coming. Jax, at one point hollered "somebody call the police" in an attempt to get a boat to turn off.
Sometimes, I think dive flags are magnets to boaters rather than deterrents. For those that dive in areas with boats, be careful and treat that surface as an overhead environment until you're sure it's clear!

 

[Wookie]

To answer some of the questions posed here:

Ali had the reel locked off and clipped to her as she drifted/swam through the water. The problem wasn't the reel, but the line had come loose and looped around her wrist. When the fisherman pulled the line, she was one handed, as one arm was wrapped in line.

Ali is not a fed. She is State of Florida.

The support boat was anchored 100 feet away from the commercial fishing boat. The operator was on the support boat. Ali had a buddy.

The plan was not to go charging up to the commercial fishing boat. Everyone at the State research lab knows how much commercial fishermen hate them. Plans change in the water.

In Maine and New Hampshire it is illegal to take lobster on scuba or freediving. If you happen to be scallop diving near someone's trap string, you will be forced to show your goodie bag to the fisherman at gunpoint. The lobsterman knows that all those damn kids are taking lobster right out of the trap. I grew up in a lobstering family. I've actually seen lobstermen dynamite each others boat offshore because one guy set his traps in another guys "secret spot". Wooden boats don't take dynamiting well. Those guys are crazy, as are all commercial fishermen. I got out at a young age, and never went back. The Hansons on the Northwestern are gentlemen compared to most of the commercial guys I know.

 

[Searcaigh]

His boat should become a new dive site

 

[Mitchell Teeters]

Ali is not a fed. She is State of Florida.

Ok, she is one step below. Still a gov't employee. I'm not saying she didn't deserve the attention, just that by virtue of her position she gets more attention from the fellow gov't workers. Seems like if the lobster men are playing like that, a Glock in a chest holster would be in order. And I'm not a poser by the way.

 

[fdog]

Just another day in the Tahoe Benchmark:

All the best, James

 

[debajo agua]

Angler charged after pulling up diver

BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
[SIZE=-0]A biologist collecting data in 55 feet of water near the Western Dry Rocks last month was jerked to the surface by a fishermen apparently angry that her dive flag was in his fishing spot, according to law enforcement officials.
That fisherman, 74-year-old Donald A. Bamford[/SIZE]

Idk but if I had to guess, the real origin of this story started the day earlier, when granny rode grandpa's ass all day.

 

[diverdoug1]

Not that it matters in the eyes of the law, but I wonder which boat was there first. The guys in the FWC boat were real dicks if they anchored 100' away from a vessel that was already fishing, and splashed divers. (no excuse for pulling a dive flag though).

 

[Wookie]

Not that it matters in the eyes of the law, but I wonder which boat was there first. The guys in the FWC boat were real dicks if they anchored 100' away from a vessel that was already fishing, and splashed divers. (no excuse for pulling a dive flag though).

This is a known mutton snapper spawning aggregation site. The commercial fishermen were targeting muttons at the time when they are making more muttons. There were about 7 boats anchored in the same patch of water. The FWC guys were the only non-consumptive boat there. Who are the dicks now?????

 

[nimoh]

Just another day in the Tahoe Benchmark:

All the best, James

if only this picture were enough to convict