Scuba Diving in Diego Garcia --- "NOT"

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My daughter (LT, USN) just came off DG after a 1year assignment. The U.S. Commander has banned U.S. personnel from diving due to the remoteness of the island, and lack of facilities for appropriate care for diving injuries. The nearest recompression chamber 16 hours away, there are only 400+/- U.S. personnel on the island. Brits are doing some coral restoration studies, and scientific staff are diving, but U.S personnel are not permitted to participate.
 
It "may" be allowed if the Land has a decompression chamber. When I was active duty the only time diving was allowed was when a Sub Tender was in port with a decompression chamber and the tender skipper okay to use it for recreational accidents. Diving was also restricted to lagoon. Doesn't happen very often.
 
Ok, here is what I know, from when I was there in the 90's. I a little here say, along with some 1st hand knowledge. From what we were told, all swimming, snorkeling, etc was banned from the ocean side because there was gobs of fire coral literally feet from the shore and no way to get past it. Now, I know from experience anything in the lagoon wasn't worth snorkeling or diving. The island is a BIOT (British Indian Ocean Territory) and the British have bouysset up as a boundary where the coral is. You go past the boys and you get a 1 way pass to the jail compliments of the BIOT police. Plus, there no equipment on the island for diving as far as I know.

Things may have changed since then
 
Snorkeling is on the Navy Moral Welfare Recreational(MWR) page! It is the only authorized undersea activity. On occasion diving is authorized,and yes it would most likely be when we are in port. I will be there in Januaryfor a few days and I will let you know what I figure out! I will make a new post of the rules or if itwill be banned for good!


Scott

 
Anyone have any news on the current regulations for diving in DG? I will be on island next month and was hoping to get some info. I know that the rules change with rotating personnel ... Any current info would be great
 
So first you have to schedule a meeting with the XO of the US Navy. Bring a copy of your dive certificate. Also bring page's 6 and 7 of the dive disclaimer. after you have been put on the approved dive list, you are allowed to dive. But there are many restrictions to your dive. Have to submit a dive plan 48 hrs prior to the dive to the XO so he can approve it. Check in and out with Navy Security. no more than a 60 min dive, no more than 60 feet and one dive a day. There are only a few select location on the island to dive.

there is a small dive club on the island with gear you can rent. currently the compressor to fill the tanks is not certified so diving is on hold for most of the divers on the island.

I will be going this Saturday because i have other means of filling a tank, will try to post pictures.

For a little more information check out. Face book- Diego Garcia dive and snorkel group

Hope this helps!
 
Thanks...I no longer work for the contractor that was trying to get the Service contract, but who knows...I might make it there someday. Enjoy the dive...and look forward to the pics :)
 
I saw on the news that as of July 2013 the lagoon was closed due to a shark attack. Has the lagoon opened for snorkeling? Is diving currently allowed on Diego?
 
ScubaBoard Community,


I was wondering if anyone knew the reason why Scuba Diving is not allowed at Diego Garcia? I know it is a British and American military base, but other bases have scuba diving activities. I have looked on the internet and can only find hypotheses and conjecture, but no real explanations.
The most interesting one being a local resident of the lagoon, Hector. :sharkattack: Hector is a Hammerhead estimated to be 25 ft (≈ 8m) in length with inclinations to visit the pier. They said the boat was a 28 footer. But personally I have never heard of any Hammerheads that big before, even the Great Hammerheads usually only get no more than 3.5 to 4 m and stay deep...sounds like a fish story to me, but after all it was on the internet with a picture. :fishslap:

View attachment 108382

While Hector is a really cool story, the internet posting I found it at was dated 2010 and diving has been banned for over 30 years. Maybe Hector has been around for 30 years :hmmm:

So I am just curious if there are other and more plausible and realistic reasons...

Michael
Hi, I know this is an old thread, but just thought I’d mention, I was in Diego Garcia in 1980 and 1981. Hector was very real. There are a number of photos of Hector out there. When first reporting for duty Diego an orientation was given with the typical warnings, coral poisoning; fire coral; cone shells; Portuguese man o’ wars; the 7 varieties of deadly sharks; etc.; and a series of photos of Hector, big, big hammer head shark. Everything there was bigger as far as fish go, it wasn’t unusual to catch 45 lb red snapper. Rock lobsters were often 18”. I personally had an encounter with a sting ray, at least 18’ tip to tip, possibly more.

Diving was routinely done by underwater construction teams. It was restricted for recreational use because of whatever it is they were doing down there. Snorkeling was allowed and we routinely snorkeled to depths of 30’ to 50’. We would swim out with a raft or two loaded up with rocks, hunks of concrete etc. When got to a hole in the reef or other interesting area we’d grab a couple heavy rocks and go down. Drop the rocks and shoot back up. We were always searching the elusive, but very valuable black coral. Never found any. Without the rocks, you could scout swim as hard as you want, you’d be lucky to get down 10’

Oh, all swimming on the Ocean side was forbidden because of sharks, but mostly because of strong tidal variations that could suck you out to Sea so fast they were hard to escape. We still swam ocean side, but it was hazardous, got pulled out to far a couple times. A very long hard and nervous swim back. Plenty of sharks visible everywhere.

Just thought I’d share a bit.
An old Seabee
 

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