Protocols for diving the "E" oil rigs formerly owned by Aera Energy

[red_instead]

As well as it's a small area and you could easily be concentrating on spearing a fish, follow it around a corner, fire, miss, and hit another diver. Safety concern more than a don't-damage-the-rig concern, though the latter was a concern of Aera.

- Ken

I've read about a couple accidents involving spearfishing on oil rigs. Usually seems to involve some guy exceeding his depth limits, shooting a big fish, and then getting dragged around by it/getting dragged into the rig structure and knocking his head and drowning.

People don't always act smart.

 

[geoff w]

We dived the "E" oil rigs for the first time last Sunday under wonderful conditions. For as calm as it was, and with good viz, there was still quite a bit of vertical surge, and it's easy to lose sight of other divers with structure in the way. There's no way I'd be comfortable if I knew other divers were potentially shooting at fish with spearguns. Given some of the bozos I've seen underwater, I'm not even comfortable being in the same dive area without obstructions when spearguns are present!

Reading over the oil rig diving protocols, a lot of the rules seem to focus on diver accountability. Were these protocols put in place as a result of Dan the Drifter in 2004?

 

[Ken Kurtis]

Were these protocols put in place as a result of Dan the Drifter in 2004?

Good question. Short answer, no. More accurate answer, not exactly. The original protocols were put in place in 2003. They were modfiied in May, 2004 post-Drifiting Dan. The text highlighted in bold (post #1 of this thread) are the changes that were added/modified as a result of the lessons learned from the Drifting Dan incident, with a goal to avoid it happening again (if the protocols are followed).

- Ken

 

[dytis-sm]

Ken,

Thank you for sharing the info. I just noticed it. I also read:

"9. Boats not adhering to protocol may be excluded from further dives on the rigs."

So every boat and its captain are the only diving participants in danger of being barred from the rigs. So the concern that "hunting" or other violations may result on a total ban of diving under the rigs, is invalid.

I terms of spearfishing, I agree that this would be insane in that environment because of the proximity of divers and varying visibility.The spark for this discussion was hunting scallops, a non-moving target that does not involve spears.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

So every boat and its captain are the only diving participants in danger of being barred from the rigs. So the concern that "hunting" or other violations may result on a total ban of diving under the rigs, is invalid.

Your logic is highly flawed:

1. If every boat is barred from the rigs, and diving the rigs is limited to commercial vessels (first protocol point), do you plan to swim the 10 miles to get out there????
2. At some point, if they should choose to ban boat 1, then boat 2, then boat 3 . . . someone might say, "Screw this, no more diving period." It's simply easier for them.

So I am at an absolute loss to understand why you conclude that a blanket ban on diving (as we endured from 2001-2003) is not a possibility. I'm truly curious to hear your thinking process and rationale.

- Ken

 

[Lopez116]

We dived the "E" oil rigs for the first time last Sunday under wonderful conditions. For as calm as it was, and with good viz, there was still quite a bit of vertical surge, and it's easy to lose sight of other divers with structure in the way. There's no way I'd be comfortable if I knew other divers were potentially shooting at fish with spearguns. Given some of the bozos I've seen underwater, I'm not even comfortable being in the same dive area without obstructions when spearguns are present!

Reading over the oil rig diving protocols, a lot of the rules seem to focus on diver accountability. Were these protocols put in place as a result of Dan the Drifter in 2004?

I have never dived the rigs and don't plan to without more experience, but I was curious about "vertical surge." I've never heard that term, but it sounds self explanatory.

Is this a phenomenon unique to diving the rigs? Is it like a down current, but less severe? Does the this kind of surge move as fast as surge that moves you horizontally?

 

[red_instead]

Ken,

Thank you for sharing the info. I just noticed it. I also read:

"9. Boats not adhering to protocol may be excluded from further dives on the rigs."

So every boat and its captain are the only diving participants in danger of being barred from the rigs. So the concern that "hunting" or other violations may result on a total ban of diving under the rigs, is invalid.

I terms of spearfishing, I agree that this would be insane in that environment because of the proximity of divers and varying visibility.The spark for this discussion was hunting scallops, a non-moving target that does not involve spears.

Yeah, you're not thinking this through. Plus the diving community isn't all that large- get a reputation as trouble to have on a dive boat, and the number of dive boats that are going to be willing to let you on board will shrink pretty rapidly

 

[Bopper]

I have never dived the rigs and don't plan to without more experience, but I was curious about "vertical surge." I've never heard that term, but it sounds self explanatory.

Is this a phenomenon unique to diving the rigs? Is it like a down current, but less severe? Does the this kind of surge move as fast as surge that moves you horizontally?

Personally speaking, I have experienced a 'vertical surge' during safety stops at the rigs. Maybe its just feels exaggerated at the rigs because you're surrounded by reference points. Or maybe there is a real surge increase because it's in the middle of the ocean and you don't have the 'dampening' effect of land nearby. But I do remember the feeling of 'surgy-ness' in the first 30 ft of the water column. I wouldn't call it a downcurrent, in the sense that it is more of a bobbing up as well as down. Below this appx 30 ft you *can* have water as calm and still as you'll ever experience in the ocean.

 

[dytis-sm]

Your logic is highly flawed:

1. If every boat is barred from the rigs, and diving the rigs is limited to commercial vessels (first protocol point), do you plan to swim the 10 miles to get out there????
2. At some point, if they should choose to ban boat 1, then boat 2, then boat 3 . . . someone might say, "Screw this, no more diving period." It's simply easier for them.

So I am at an absolute loss to understand why you conclude that a blanket ban on diving (as we endured from 2001-2003) is not a possibility. I'm truly curious to hear your thinking process and rationale.

- Ken

Dear Ken,

my logic is simple. The statement simply states that if a boat and a captain are found in violation then they are banned. Not every other boat. So in fact the captains that are "violators" are risking their own business not every other boat's. Your follow up statement is an assumption that if someone choses to ignore a rule then everyone else will be banned. That assumption sounds like a "hissy fit" of a five year old that does not want to play with other kids because one took their toy... That is of course if the rules are valid which is also still debated.

Once more I see that with an "agenda" in place it is hard to find anything logic if you disagree with it. I can read the comments here and tell who is the photographer, the hunter, and neither. Everyone is commenting from their own perpsective. Thankfully there is a balance by people on all sides.

 

[merxlin]

dytis- your assumption is that the rig owners will, as boats violate the rules, ban them individually. And that may be true for the first, or the second. But at some point the rig owners may decide it is too much trouble and just not allow any dive boats.

And you can put out there this perceived divide you think exists between hunters and photographers. Guess what, if there were no scallops on the rigs it would not change the photography enough for anyone to notice. And actually, watching a big Sheepshead snag scallops or scallop parts from hunters is quite entertaining. It's about the access for all divers, not just photographers. We are not trying to clarify the scallop take issue because of the hunting, but because of the potential consequences. In the end, it is up to the individual captains to tell you the rules they follow. And up to each diver to decide if they will follow those rules or not. Hopefully, this is just discussion and not fodder for a future thread about what happened to rig diving.