One Chinese diver missing in Galapagos and another missing in Komodo.

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Location
Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
# of dives
100 - 199
In the past few days, two incidents about one Chinese diver missing in Galapagos and another in Komodo have been circulating on Chinese social media. One of the incidents has been picked up by Chinese media.

There is also rumour that two Chinese divers went missing in Red Sea but nobody has revealed more details so cannot be confirmed.
 


A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This forum is a place to discuss the facts of dive accidents and incidents and to learn from them to prevent incident recurrence. It will be extremely difficult to have that discussion as this original post makes vague reference to several incidents and lacks many specifics such as exact date or location. Should any facts emerge, they will be split off into new, individual threads to focus the discussion. Responses denigrating entire nationalities are unacceptable and have been deleted as this is strictly forbidden anywhere on ScubaBoard. Any further such posts may warrant more intrusive moderation action. Marg, SB Senior Moderator
 


A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This forum is a place to discuss the facts of dive accidents and incidents and to learn from them to prevent incident recurrence. It will be extremely difficult to have that discussion as this original post makes vague reference to several incidents and lacks many specifics such as exact date or location. Should any facts emerge, they will be split off into new, individual threads to focus the discussion. Responses denigrating entire nationalities are unacceptable and have been deleted as this is strictly forbidden anywhere on ScubaBoard. Any further such posts may warrant more intrusive moderation action. Marg, SB Senior Moderator

As my wife is Chinese and I have travelled to China a number of times, I am interested in Scuba Diving in China. We have to remember that Scuba is a new hobby in China. There are few dive shops in such a large country, few people are certified, and there are only a few dive spots worth going to in China. That being said, Scuba is becoming more popular as it is seen as an extreme sport. I am interested in learning more details about the above referenced accidents. I am curious to know if these divers were in fact certified to international standards, if they were experienced, and if there was a language barrier that prevented them from understanding the conditions on the days of the dives. I will ask my wife to do some research into these reports and if we find any information, I will add it to this thread.
 
Its a new sport and a new frontier. Its worth remembering that all new entrants - esp those people who have risen quickly to affluence - aren't necessarily the social paragons we wish to see. It happens for all races - study history. Or better yet watch the famous Jacques Cousteau's first movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jH2QkP-Bvg

We can only hope to encourage new divers to emulate our model behaviour and lead by example :D

Gone are the days when one people group could lord it over another and be applauded.

I say this after spending 1 week with a certain group of divers in the Maldives - the highlight of which was the free swim with giant Manta Rays - the idiots didn't know how to snorkel properly and worse kept on swimming into the Manta Rays and kicking them with their fins. I was livid.
 
...Or better yet watch the famous Jacques Cousteau's first movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jH2QkP-Bvg

....

It's amazing the things they did back then that we wouldn't even imagine doing today. It seems like they harassed every living creature they came across. Eventually, Jacques Cousteau and his crew learned and became the defenders of the seas. Hopefully, when more and more nationalities and cultures become involved in Scuba Diving, they will learn that the oceans and the creatures in them are fragile and must be protected.

My wife checked on Weibo (kind of like the Chinese Facebook/Yahoo), but could not find any information about these missing divers. I hope they are ok.
 
As my wife is Chinese and I have travelled to China a number of times, I am interested in Scuba Diving in China. We have to remember that Scuba is a new hobby in China. There are few dive shops in such a large country, few people are certified, and there are only a few dive spots worth going to in China. That being said, Scuba is becoming more popular as it is seen as an extreme sport. I am interested in learning more details about the above referenced accidents. I am curious to know if these divers were in fact certified to international standards, if they were experienced, and if there was a language barrier that prevented them from understanding the conditions on the days of the dives. I will ask my wife to do some research into these reports and if we find any information, I will add it to this thread.

Training to international standards is accessible within China. There is no reason to assume that the divers were not certified. Moreover, the diving industry in Egypt is fairly well developed and staffed (on the whole) with very experienced and competent professionals. I wouldn't see any reason to assume that a dive OP in Egypt would take unnecessary risks with uncertified divers.

Language barrier could be a relevant point but I doubt it and not for the reason you think. English fluency within China is actually higher than in Egypt, although I suspect that Chinese tourists travelling to Egypt and people working in the tourist industries in Egypt would be well above the norm for either country. Accents and assumptions, however, are still a reason for keeping language issues on the table until more facts are available.

R..
 
I do know that training to international standards is available in China. But on a per-capita basis, very few people are certified, and there are very few shops and dive locations for such a very large country.

That being said, I do not have any details about these divers but would like to know if they were unfortunate accidents or if there was any type of defect in either training, language, or equipment. I plan on diving in China some day and this information may or may not be relevant.
 
I can only repeat the bits I picked up about the lady in Galapagos, so consider this hearsay. The location was Cabo Douglas on the island of Fernandina in Galapagos. She had apparently been ill, eating almost nothing that morning and sitting out a dive. She was seen in video footage towards the end of the dive, but was not present at the surface. Rescue efforts were carried out extensively afterwards, but she was never found. Someone told me she was diving a dry suit.

If you open Google Earth and look at the northwest tip of Fernandina, you can see photos of Cabo Douglas. There are currents here and surge.The floor of where it is below 200 ft or less is black from lava rock and black sand, also visible in the Google Earth photos. The blue just beyond ranges from over 1000 ft to over 7500 ft deep quite nearby the shallow ledge by the shoreline.
 

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