PhilEllis:
The Captain of that boat taking you on the 10-20 minute ride is a federally licensed professional boat master, responsible for your well being on the seas.
No pun intended, but your reply deserves the other side of the coin be presented with the same tone.
Neither the boat Captain, nor the DM are really responsible for your well being on the seas. They are responsible for their own. As you mentioned, boat captains are USCG certified, which makes them
criminally liable to the State in the event the investigation into the aftermath of an accident shows the boat captain acted negligently while operating the boat; examples include, but are not limited to, operating the boat under the influence, running over a diver because of being distracted while the boat was in motion, and so on, which ironically, is a deterrence to keep them from being negligent. Their liability to you, the diver, is civil in nature, and it is waived the minute the diver signs the release from liability form, without which you don't get on the boat.
Here's an excerpt of the release of one of the South Florida local dive operators; the names of the operator, of the owners, and of the boats have been redacted to maintain anonymity.
I understand that neither OWNER, DIVE OPERATOR, INC., the owner or crew of the vessels BOAT NAME, BOAT NAME, or BOAT NAME, nor the vessel BOAT NAME, BOAT NAME, BOAT NAME may be held liable in any way for any occurrence on this dive trip
which may result in personal injury, property damage, wrongful death; and the undersigned does for him/herself, and his/her heirs, executors, administrators and for his/her estate, and agrees that under no circumstances will he/she or his/her heirs, executors, administrators or assigns prosecute or present any claim for personal injury, personal damage or wrongful death, against the above listed entities or individuals for any said persons, or otherwise.
Courts put a lot of weight into the releases signed by each diver, which means that even if your personal representative was to civily sue the operator because the Captain was found to be criminally negligent, and that criminal negligence caused your demise, the release of liability you signed prior to getting on the boat, would allow a defense of assumption of risk, which would more likely than not, cause the civil suit to be dismissed, and the dismissal affirmed at the appellate level. BTW, the argument of "he didn't know what he was signing" would be laughed out of court.
I realize that general overhead will drive prices up, but, like CF, I wouldn't pay $75.00, plus tanks (I'd like to know which operator charges that though), which will be an easy $100.00 expense (including a very minimal tip to the DM), per diver, which for me would be the expense X 3, for a "[4] hour tour[,]" especially if they are not even going to assume the civil liability for driving the boat judiciously. I will, however, gladly spend whatever money would be required in costs, to go on my own boat, even if the same "[4] hour tour[,]" costs me 4 or 5 times the money. At least that way I wouldn't be subject to someone else's decision of where I'm going to dive, or whether the tour will be 4 hours, and if I'm smart, the operating costs can be tax deductible.
Let's keep things in perspective before we admonish anyone for not wanting to pay an amount they would consider unreasonable for a dive charter, shall we????
