Dive Flag placement
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Always from the highest point of the boat.
Well if you have a buoy and you want it placed in the water It should be toted around by the diver. You need to have one on your boat too. From my understanding a diver should not go more than 100ft away from the flag and oncoming boating traffic need to stay 400ft from the boat and the buoy-flag.
Laws/regulations differ from state to state and from one locale to another (some towns would have different regulations about using the dive flag than their neighboring town) in the US. In most states, the dive flag means "proceed with caution" as opposed to "don't come near" the dive flag. In other words, the boat can come right up to the flag if they are proceeding with "caution." At the end, don't expect too much protection for you as a diver from the dive flag. The diver has to be very cautious. Too often the dive flag regulations are used to harass divers in areas where there is a perceived threat from divers by the local fishing industry especially the Lobstering community as is the case in some parts of Massachusetts (divers get blamed for everything negative that befalls the lobstering industry sometimes).
When you surface from your dive, you have to be within a certain distance from the flag too, somewhere 50 - 100 feet depending on the local regulation.
For boats, they may not only have to display the dive flag, but they may also have to display the alpha flag. You need to check with the local authorities and the Coast Guard.
I stand corrected. Thank you BurhanMuntasser I guess I was refering to the laws I was taught here in Florida.
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