Sorry I was not able to get back to you on this. I wait for the same info.
Yes, that Hicks thing sure is a clust, no sure we will ever know the full extent of it. One hears rumors up here, half-truths, thoeries, and so on. Coming as close as it did to the Healy incident, well it makes us think a little harder about these things up here. I am not longer an active scientific diver. It just got to be a bit too much and they disbanded the team where I worked due to inactivity.
I'm not sure I understand some of the points that you try to make. Not sure that beig a professional scientist is a prerequisite to be a DSO. I know lots of professional scientists who have come back to the boat with no air in their tanks, believe that rules are something to be circumvented, and are only diving because it was a department expectation that they do so. I am a trained social scientist, but did most of my scientific diving before before having the degree conferred. Besides, some of the best pre-aquarium and pre-NGO DSOs were not scientists, some had less than a couple of years of college. Most were extremenly good watermen and had a knack for herding cats.
That said, I could never figure why being a recreational dive instructor qualified anyone for a diving officer position.
The Hicks incident may never be completely understood. The nature of diving in Alaska requires that we add additional consideration to our dive planning (i.e., carry enough oxygen on some shore dives because nearest EMS with additional oxygen may be two to three hours away. Rescue techniques learned in warmer water may be more complicated up here, and so on. Every area has its considerations and complications. This location specific character was driven home as I was reading James Wooford's recent book, The Great Barrier Reef: In Search of the Real Reef. The author untertakes a two year stint as a scientific diver (though not a scientist) on the GBR. Makes for very interesting reading.