Lessons to be learned-Death in Palau

[pilot fish]

Not use a reef hook to start out with. Or, at minimum, don't clip it to yourself.

it is such a weird practice to begin with, divers cliping onto reefs must kill it, but since that is what she did, what else could she have done?

If not clipped to yourself, D ring on BC?,then hand hold it?

 

[Hank49]

What about putting in permanent mooring lines, like for boats on dive sites? Pound steel rods in and tie a light, floating 6 foot piece of rope for the divers to hang onto. They wouldn't need to touch any coral. Just grab one as you drift by.

 

[detroit diver]

That makes WAY too much sense, so it will never happen.

What about putting in permanent mooring lines, like for boats on dive sites? Pound steel rods in and tie a light, floating 6 foot piece of rope for the divers to hang onto. They wouldn't need to touch any coral. Just grab one as you drift by.

 

[ReefGuy]

Frankly, while I disagree with this practice, I place it WELL below murder.

Did you log in just to lodge a series of personal attacks?

I just had to add this is sick. Hooking is wrong, selfish and intentional murder. posted by Cudachasers' Wife

 

[pilot fish]

What about putting in permanent mooring lines, like for boats on dive sites? Pound steel rods in and tie a light, floating 6 foot piece of rope for the divers to hang onto. They wouldn't need to touch any coral. Just grab one as you drift by.

Yeah, that would be better, I'd think. If the current is that ripping, why not treat it ONLY as a drift dive? This would never go on in Coz, or elsewere in the Caribbean.

 

[detroit diver]

Yeah, that would be better, I'd think. If the current is that ripping, why not treat it ONLY as a drift dive? This would never go on in Coz, or elsewere in the Caribbean.

From what I understand (as I've never dove there), there is an optimal place to see an abundance of pelagics, and that is where the hooking takes place. If you were to drift dive it, you would only see it for a brief minute as you would be swept away.

 

[jakubson]

Thirdly, the brochere for that boat states "experienced divers", which means what? 10 prior dives? 100? 500? I didn't see anything stating the dives would be difficult, in fact one could argue only with experience would one be able to discern that, therefore it's a dangerous trap for inexperienced divers.

http://www.aggressor.com/_pdfs/Pal-KBYG.pdf

Just to set the record straight, the boat in question was a Peter Hughes boat. The above link is to the Aggressor website.

I was there on the Ocean Hunter that week- we used reef hooks all the time. When we went to the Pelielue Cut, it was ripping- it was a full moon and they say the current gets worse. The reef hook was a lot less damaging than the Japanese that were mugging all the coral, breaking it off, and then tumbling backwards killing more coral on their way. They dont use reef hooks and they kill tons of coral everytime they go out. We, on the other hand, only hook to DEAD coral (inevitabley created by the Japanese). I am extremely careful to make sure I hook to dead coral- not live stuff. We were told on the OH to abort if we couldn't hook or if it got too bad- then it would be a drift dive over a plateau that would take us over blue water where we would do our safety stop at 15' and put up our sausage. We were not pressured to hook or to not abort. I would think PHD would have given the same briefing, but I wasn't there.
Lisa

This parallels my experience on the Aggressor last year. Similar briefing. They also briefed about cutting the line if there was any trouble unhooking.

 

[detroit diver]

........... They also briefed about cutting the line if there was any trouble unhooking.

Which means you're completely S.O.L. if you drop your knife.

Locking yourself onto a reef/rock in a ripping current while floating like a kite is not the brightest thing I can imagine.

 

[FreeFloat]

Didn't I read somewhere that the original poster said the groups of divers were not required to even have cutting tools? :11:

 

[Hank49]

From what I understand (as I've never dove there), there is an optimal place to see an abundance of pelagics, and that is where the hooking takes place. If you were to drift dive it, you would only see it for a brief minute as you would be swept away.

This is true with a site I frequented in the Philippines. There was a very strong current hitting a wall at about a 70 degree angle and if you blew past it you wouldn't see any of the big pelagics. In this case however, you could lay low just under the ledge or above it and get in the "roll" of the water as it hit the edge and pretty much maintain position without grabbing anything. Palau seems to be different from the description though.