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I don't have very many dives but I'm glad I had a knife with me on this one. We were just swimming along when my fin got hung up. I gave it a good tug but it was stuck. I pulled my knife and cut the line hanging on my fin strap. Once we got back to the dock I noticed this lovely hook embedded in the sole of my left fin. :shocked2: I keep it in my dive bag as a reminder to Cut not yank...
About the only time I use my knife is to open abandoned lobster pots.
Note the *abandoned*. Pots get detached, and pots at 20m (60 ft) with no line on them for a fisherman to raise then get filled with sealife that has no way of getting out. Best thing to do is to cut the rope mesh sides and let the critters out (and into a suitable bag if at hand). However, too often the critters are often either in a piteous state or already gone if the pot has been there too long.
In both the UK and in France pots are always attached either to one another in a long string, or they have an individual buoy at the surface.
Obviously cutting a lobster pot with a lifting line on it is an absolute no-no, as this is part of a fishermans Trade tools.
I've used mine twice in the water. Once was to free a barracuda who had a fishing hook and the line was wrapped around part of the reef, holding him there. Cut the line as close to the hook as I could and got the line off the reef. A second time was only a few weeks ago. Went through an area that had a lot of trees which looked really cool! But, as I was swimming I noticed I wasn't going anywhere. Turned around to look and there was a spider web of fishing line that got a hold of me. Wasn't really scary I guess. Just took the bc off, held onto it and cut the fishing line until I was free and put the bc back on. I got as much of the line in that spot out as I could.
My buddy was leading on the grove at 112' inside the ship and got fouled on monofilament. I got out the knife and cut him free. You never know how narced you are until trying to use a knife and then put it away at depth. Rather uneventful but had we not had cutting tools it might have been bad at that depth.
Last month the same thing happened to me on the Speigel at about the same depth. I was running a reel down a hall/hatches and someone had left prior line (a huge birdsnest) in a hatch area. I am guessing it was on the ceiling. I never saw it until it attacked me. My buddy and I tried to remove it but ended up cutting it. We removed most of it then and the rest of it the next day. It was more of an inconvenience than anything but I was glad I had a cutting device - actually 2.
The areas where I shore dive in Taiwan, always have a lot of fishing line all over the place. Although I have never been snagged, I always cut the lines when I come across them. Hopefully this will prevent another diver getting into a sticky situation.
The only time I remember using a cutting tool was to cut fishing line. On rare occasions I've had it entangle my fins and tank and once had a hook catch on my wetsuit. In addition to being a diver's paradise, the waters off my beloved Catalina are also popular for anglers. Fortunately the dive park is now a marine protected area so there should be no further problems there.
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