Dive tour boat heading to night trip grounds in Kona waters; 5 injured

[Penguins4ever]

Not really finding much information about this besides this article which popped up in my news feed. Hope everyone is ok.

Update: Dive tour boat heading to night trip grounds in Kona waters; 5 injured | Big Island Now

Hawai‘i Fire Department was dispatched to Honōkohau Harbor at 10:12 p.m. When they arrived at the scene, crews found the boat was in tide waters and had sustained substantial front hull damage.

bigislandnow.com

 

[chillyinCanada]

Geez even in Hawaii

 

[RedSeaDiver2]

Geez even in Hawaii

Yep - its not just a Red Sea thing. Seems a bit odd to hit something 100 yards from the harbor entrance though

 

[KevinNM]

I remember we almost hit a whale that decided to surface in front of the boat coming back in, captain was not amused. She said we’d capsize and then if she survived that she’d have to explain how she injured a marine mammal to the CG and F&W.

 

[Rearviewmirror]

I had heard good things about Big Island Divers but didn't dive with them while in Hawaii. The harbor entrance is narrow and very busy, so a bit hard to tell what caused this incident. Possible a boat was either slowing or manoeuvring and they had to get out of the way in a hurry - wildlife does come into the habor so maybe another boat stopped suddenly.

There was an incident recently at one of the night manta dives when another boat almost hit a Jack's Diving Locker boat at the mooring (not sure if it slipped the ball or what happened), but I got the impression there is a relatively high amount of new captains operating on Kona, so this could potentially be a factor.

 

[KevinNM]

Not 100% sure how it works, but what I was told by a long-time Jack’s employee is that all the employees are instructors, but the job is so desirable (getting paid to dive in Hawaii) and the cost pressures on operators is so high that it doesn’t pay very well given the cost of living. You get a significant pay raise if you become a coast guard accredited captain able to drive their boats as their are a lot fewer of them around and no captain means no dive trip. So there is pressure to get more captains. But significant pay raise doesn’t mean you are wealthy, Hawaii is silly expensive to live. So there is turnover as people realize they are not willing to live in genteel poverty forever just to live the dream.