Required to tow a flag on Curacao?

[jd950]

When I was last on Curacao there was some discussion of the Coast Guard recently enforcing a rule that divers were required to tow a flag or marker.

I am wondering whatever came of this? Leaving aside the safety potential, should I expect there to be enforcement of this rule by dive shops, Coast Guard, or others?

I am talking about unguided shore dives, not boat dives or diving with guides.

 

[bkpix]

This is what we were told by Bryan from OEW when he stopped by our apartment at All West for an unscheduled dinner our last night there; left over chicken. (Andreas and Bryan scarfed it!!!)

There is a law that says dive flags should be used on shore dives, but nobody enforces that law. That being said, they could start enforcing the law any time they felt like it.

I suppose if the local constabulary showed up :mooner::mooner::mooner:; then..........

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Maybe I'll find a little Diver Down flag and zip tie it to my BC inflator hose

Does the law say the flag has to float on the surface??

This plus lionfish proliferation may make our Sep. 2010 trip our last one to Curacao for a while. We've spent the last 3 days on St. Croix with nary a lionfish spotted by us, day or night.

 

[jd950]

Even if a flag/buoy is required, I won't tow one around around. I may take it with me on the swim out to a dropoff and then float it when I am back near the surface, but won't tow the thing throughout the dive.

A lot of places have similar laws, its just that some enforce them and some don't. I would guess a flag is required in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Don't know what to say about the lionfish. From what I have read, they are definitely around St. Croix as well as almost every place else in the Caribbean.

 

[Bryan.]

This is what we were told by Bryan from OEW when he stopped by our apartment at All West for an unscheduled dinner our last night there; left over chicken. (Andreas and Bryan scarfed it!!!)

There is a law that says dive flags should be used on shore dives, but nobody enforces that law. That being said, they could start enforcing the law any time they felt like it.

I suppose if the local constabulary showed up :mooner::mooner::mooner:; then..........

Hey guys,
bkpix is correct about what I said. Indeed there is a law from the Curacao government and it is enforced by the Curacao Coast Guard that says shore divers need to use a float/flag/reel while diving.

As mentioned, dive ops on Curacao do not enforce this law. However with due diligence in mind, we need to inform you of the law & because your safety is our concern.

As in all cases (like for instance the seat belt law), you at at your own risk if choose not to use one.

See you soon on Curacao!!

 

[morecowbells]

We never used surface markers during our shore dives and were never approached by any type of law enforcement about it. After our last visit to Curacao I noticed a much greater amount of boat and jet ski activity on the weekends. One jet skier completely disregarded the buoy line and came too close for comfort-although in retrospect, they would probably not have noticed a blue whale in front of them either. In the future I will be using a surface marker during my ascent and descent.

 

[jd950]

Then there are all those stories about divers towing a buoy or shooting one on ascent only to have some fool in a boat zoom over to it to see what it is and or try to fish it out of the water....

Still, I will probably start putting up an SMB on at least some ascents.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

We're on our 4th trip to St. Croix right now and there's never been any mention of requirements for divers to tow dive flags on any of our USVI trips. Never seen it done on guided shore dives either - this would be extremely problematic when diving either the new F'stead pier or the old one we dove in 2002. I can't imagine a more entanglement-prone way to dive a pier whether on STX or BON (either Salt Pier or the downtown pier on BON).

One more reason STX may top CUR in places for us to return to going forward if this becomes a big hassle issue. BON dropped low on our list when sites like Atlantis became the domain of kiteboarders, if we return to BON for a 4th time we'll try staying in the more northerly area like Hamlet Oasis. On Curacao kiteboarding was limited to the windward side on our 3 trips to CUR thus far.

Have any other travelers to STX (or STT even) in the past 10 nyears or so had different experiences? Post 'em up so we can tally this up.

Our dive guide yesterday informed us lionfish are starting to appear at St. Croix, last month reported total island-wide was 4 (this would average 1 per week). This differs significantly from recent CUR trip reports posted here stating seeing at least one lionfish on every dive on CUR (thanks to bxpix for the recent CUR update)

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/abc-islands/329742-trip-report-curacao-march-2010-a.html

 

[Curacao Sunshine]

There are lionfish on Curacao. The first ones were spotted last August or September.
We talk to a lot of divers. Many, yes have reported seeing a lion fish on 2 or 3 of their dives in a week. Me, I've only seen a couple on my last dozen dives. But.... say there are a hundred divers a week who dive at Porto Marie and 30 of them report seeing a lionfish. Does that mean there are 30 fish or 30 people might have seen the same ones? Please, don't come to the island expecting to see schools of them like you would blue chromis. Yes, definitely tell the dive shops approx. where you saw it. But don't base your dive vacation on whether or not there are lionfish present or you might be enjoying some quarry dives in the near future. CARMABI is working on developing a plan to keep them under control, I don't know if it's possible to eradicate them. There will be more as time goes on.
The dive buoy is for your safety. That said, I haven't noticed any dive flag police on my last dozen dives, make that any of my dives. And, I certainly wouldn't want to encourage everyone to inflate their safety sausages and they become common place and ignored if anyone did use it in an emergency. All dive shops have the diver down flags that anyone can use instead.

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

After seeing the quantity and size of lionfish in the Exumas last June I don't think it's going to be possible to prevent them from showing up everywhere in the Caribbean. We only saw a couple in Curacao in November and they were tiny compared to the Bahamas. Also saw similar size in Cozumel in December. Cozumel and Curacao are making at least making an attempt to catch/control them. I was so sick of seeing them in the Bahamas, they were like fat well fed cats lounging all over the reefs.