Intimidation at the Rube

[GulfCoastdiver]

Has anyone every had a couple fishing charter boats try to push you off a site?


I went to the rube today and there were some charter boats trolling the site. We pulled up slow and throw up the flag and stopped dead in the water about 100 yrds from the site to think of what to do next, move on or wait and see what they're doing. Then I hear them on the radio talk about running me off, cutting across my bow and see how close they can come to me. This all took place in less than 2 mins so I decided to sit there. So for 5 or 10 mins I sat listening to the 3 boats ( Snoopy II, Double Hooked and a third no name boat)
"lets make 'em work for it" 'I'm going to cut across his bow" "he's looking mad now." One boat cut across my bow within 30' from me, they're now trolling a tight circle in front of my boat. After one said, I think he's angry now, I key'd up and said, "no but, I'm enjoying the show" then one said, "we'll be moving on in about 10 mins" I replied "I'll come back then" and moved on. So why didn't they just say something to me in the first place instead of trying to intimidate me?

 

[jvazquez]

"throw up the flag and stopped", "One boat cut across my bow within 30' from me", Florida Statues (327.331) require "Any person operating a vessel on a river, inlet, or navigation channel must make a reasonable effort to maintain a distance of at least 100 feet from any divers-down flag."
You should have reported them to the Marine Patrol or Coast Guard.

 

[WheelsUSN]

"throw up the flag and stopped", "One boat cut across my bow within 30' from me", Florida Statues (327.331) require "Any person operating a vessel on a river, inlet, or navigation channel must make a reasonable effort to maintain a distance of at least 100 feet from any divers-down flag."
You should have reported them to the Marine Patrol or Coast Guard.

The statute also states:
(7) The divers-down flag must be lowered once all divers are aboard or ashore. No person may operate any vessel displaying a divers-down flag unless the vessel has one or more divers in the water.


It would appear since the OP was stopping to decide what to do and not deploy divers that he was also in violation of the law.

 

[GulfCoastdiver]

Thats a good point, we did not put anyone in at that point and didn't know if we would. Should have not put the flag up and maybe they wouldn't of charged me like they did.

 

[WheelsUSN]

Thats a good point, we did not put anyone in at that point and didn't know if we would. Should have not put the flag up and maybe they wouldn't of charged me like they did.

Not that it excuses their actions but I bet that they felt that by putting up the flag you were trying to intimidate them and push them off of a site that they were using before you arrived. It wouldn't surprise me if there is a thread on a fishing forum about some diver who thought that he could put up a flag and intimidate the fishermen to push them off his divesite. I think there is enough blame for both sides in this case.

 

[Kharon]

Yep. Just cause you are a diver dosen't mean that people have to leave a site when they were there first. Putting up the flag with divers in the water or not would almost certainly be interpreted as "that guy thinks he owns the ocean" (lake, river, whatever). If I was already there fishing I would have been pissed too.

 

[jvazquez]

I wasn't saying, or even implying that they should leave the site. I was commenting on: "One boat cut across my bow within 30' from me, they're now trolling a tight circle in front of my boat." He could have been preparing to put divers in the water - the flag goes up before the divers get in the water.

 

[WheelsUSN]

I wasn't saying, or even implying that they should leave the site. I was commenting on: "One boat cut across my bow within 30' from me, they're now trolling a tight circle in front of my boat." He could have been preparing to put divers in the water - the flag goes up before the divers get in the water.

You stated that the original poster should have notified the marine patrol. Do you think he should have also told the marine patrol that he had no intention to put divers in the water at the time he raised the flag?

You quoted a portion of the law that stated that the other boats must make a reasonable effort to maintain a safe distance from a vessel displaying the dive flag but you conveniently failed to quote the part of the law that said it was illegal to display the flag under the circumstances described by the original poster.

 

[Splash-X]

Welcome to the land of weekend boaters, incompetent captains and just plain rude people. You'll be surprised how often dive boats are anchored at wrecks and have average joes and even charter captains pull up along side the dive boat to chat while the dive down flag is up and divers in the water.

It really boils down to respect, and it goes both ways. Most captains who have been at it will see there are other boats in the area, try to hail them on the radio to see if they plan to stay at that location and then make a decision to either move on to another location and come back for a second dive or to simple wait it out. This simple gesture goes a long way for boater relations!

A dive boat should never run off fishermen and fishermen should respect the dive boats.

Since you arrived at the site after the other boats were already in the area you should have been the one to raise them and politely ask if they mind if you set anchor or ask how long they were planning to be at the site so you could return later. I bet the entire situation would have been different with a bit of communication.