Honoring the Dive Flag

[RJP]

Not a "Hawaii" story but since I'll be diving in Oahu this Friday and Saturday I figured it's sort of on-topic in an O'Hana kind of way...

I crew on a dive boat here in NJ. The "rules of the road" are pretty well understood by most boat operators, particularly dive boat ops. Or so you would think.

The way it works here is "first come, first served" in that if your boat gets to a wreck and find another boat there, you move on to another wreck. Simple enough. Exception would be if it's one of the larger wrecks that can accomodate more divers. If that's the case you might radio the boat already in place and ask if you can share the wreck. If the first boat is OK with it, boat #2 sends a crew member down boat #1's line and then ties in elsewhere on the wreck.

Two weeks ago we're diving on the Stolt Dagali doing my first dive when I hear engines overhead. I'm wondering why our guys have started the engines up, or if someone's coming too close. Either way I figure I'm safe on the bottom. Next thing I know is I'm almost hit by a grapnel at 130ft!

Seems another dive boat came by and decided WE were gonna share the wreck. Not only did they not radio and request permission to tie in, they simply pulled along side and decided to try and snag the wreck. We had 18 divers in the water! Suppose someone had been hit by the hook, or snagged, or entangled in the line?

Now you can almost "forgive" ignorant boaters, kayakers, or canoeists, but another DIVE BOAT? That's just ridiculous!

 

[sea nmf]

Not a "Hawaii" story but since I'll be diving in Oahu this Friday and Saturday I figured it's sort of on-topic in an O'Hana kind of way...

I crew on a dive boat here in NJ. The "rules of the road" are pretty well understood by most boat operators, particularly dive boat ops. Or so you would think.

The way it works here is "first come, first served" in that if your boat gets to a wreck and find another boat there, you move on to another wreck. Simple enough. Exception would be if it's one of the larger wrecks that can accomodate more divers. If that's the case you might radio the boat already in place and ask if you can share the wreck. If the first boat is OK with it, boat #2 sends a crew member down boat #1's line and then ties in elsewhere on the wreck.

Two weeks ago we're diving on the Stolt Dagali doing my first dive when I hear engines overhead. I'm wondering why our guys have started the engines up, or if someone's coming too close. Either way I figure I'm safe on the bottom. Next thing I know is I'm almost hit by a grapnel at 130ft!

Seems another dive boat came by and decided WE were gonna share the wreck. Not only did they not radio and request permission to tie in, they simply pulled along side and decided to try and snag the wreck. We had 18 divers in the water! Suppose someone had been hit by the hook, or snagged, or entangled in the line?

Now you can almost "forgive" ignorant boaters, kayakers, or canoeists, but another DIVE BOAT? That's just ridiculous!

Did anything come of this? Did you report them, etc? This is really, really dangerous.

 

[RJP]

Did anything come of this? Did you report them, etc? This is really, really dangerous.

Nothing to report unfortunately since they were more than 100 ft from our boat (the section of the Stolt we were diving is 140ft in length) so technically they did observe the dive and alpha flags we had displayed.

 

[CaptFlyingDutchman]

[FONT=&quot] A couple of weekends ago I saw a blue commercial fishing vessel cut in between 2 dive boats of [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Kewalo[/FONT][FONT=&quot] Basin[/FONT][FONT=&quot]:no. Both boats had divers in the water and dive flags. One of the dive boat captain tried hailing the fishing vessel on ch 16 but the fishing vessel never answered.[/FONT]

 

[FengShui]

With all of this discussion of dive flags, I have a question. When shore diving, do you regularly post a dive flag in the water? Most of the posts above reference boat diving, where a dive flag is a no-brainer. Do people commonly bring a dive flag along on a shore dive, or do most people not bother?

 

[justleesa]

Sea nmf was definately talking about shore dive. I know that they do come and check if you have a flag or not at some of our more popular shore dive sites.

 

[Sideband]

A bang stick to the bottom of a kayak or canoe would make them think twice next time.

If you see them heading your way come up just close enough to the surface that you can grab their paddle as they go by.

 

[MeiLing]

With all of this discussion of dive flags, I have a question. When shore diving, do you regularly post a dive flag in the water? Most of the posts above reference boat diving, where a dive flag is a no-brainer. Do people commonly bring a dive flag along on a shore dive, or do most people not bother?

Depends on where you're at. Places like Shark's Cove usually have DLNR officers there frequently so the likelihood of a ticket is pretty great.

I've also known folks who kept a small dive flag rolled up in their pocket so as to avoid a ticket if they were ever busted.

 

[rockjock3]

[FONT=&quot] A couple of weekends ago I saw a blue commercial fishing vessel cut in between 2 dive boats of [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Kewalo[/FONT][FONT=&quot] Basin[/FONT][FONT=&quot]:no. Both boats had divers in the water and dive flags. One of the dive boat captain tried hailing the fishing vessel on ch 16 but the fishing vessel never answered.[/FONT]

should have hailed the CG and ensure the other boat knew you were talking about them in the report.

We had a fishing boat fishing off the YO-257 when we were diving it last weekend. Towing lines behind them.

 

[KrisB]

With all of this discussion of dive flags, I have a question. When shore diving, do you regularly post a dive flag in the water? Most of the posts above reference boat diving, where a dive flag is a no-brainer. Do people commonly bring a dive flag along on a shore dive, or do most people not bother?

When I'm shore diving, there's always a flag in the water, and we surface (barring emergency) within 100' of it as required.

On some dives, I'll tow it for part or all of the dive, sometimes I'll anchor it -- totally depends on the site, conditions and group experience.