South florida boat traffic, points of view, dive flags and people

[Ana]

I've been on leave since the last week of June so my interaction with people from my personal boat has been more than normal.

Typically I avoid anywhere that already has a boat but sometimes certain degree of interaction is unavoidable.

So was the case one day last week and again today. Granted today was mini-season so I was kinda prepared for that, but last week, Tuesday I think, was pretty lame, hopefully the people I encountered read scuba board and I can give them a proper "go fish yourself" here.

Started as a lazy diving day, most of my private days in the water tend to be on the lazy side and this was supposed to be no different. For that day I was scuba diving and my son was freediving with a buddy. The plan was for each to take turns, I was to guard them and their float and they would guard me and my flag.

They were spearfishing around the Horseshoe, an area just north of the Hillsboro inlet. Being a week day there was very little traffic, but the boat coming by behaved distracted, seemed to me they cleared the inlet and set the auto pilot. Now keep in mind it takes more effort to guard freedivers than scuba divers because on scuba they stay at depth most of the dive; freediving you are mostly on the surface: breathing up -submerge -come up- blow and start again.

So after 1.5 hours or a little more guarding them I spot a float with a dive flag slowly drifting our way, that day current was going south. The float was a way north when I spotted with a private boat guarding it. I didn't think much of it but did keep an eye on them. Well time went by some traffic came closer to my 2 guys than I care for and I used the boat to motivate them to alter their course.

Now sometimes I may not calculate properly how close are they going to pass us by holding their course and may be a bit to conservative about how much space I like to have. I keep my space by placing the boat between my guys and the transiting boat. If my point of view is not at the correct angle I may think they will be too close and move the boat over just to see them going way east or west of where I thought they were gonna go... no big deal, not bothering anyone doing that, keeps me busy and I know for sure my guys are fine.

Ok so by the 2 hour mark the scuba flag is almost on top of my guys so I warned the one towing the float to move over to avoid any entanglement. I come close to them each time they spear a fish or if they ask for water, so in general there more freedivers/boat contact than with scuba divers. Well right about that time, 3 scuba divers come by their flag and they are waving their hands at me and screaming stuff. At the beginning I thought they didn't know where their boat was, I was directly east of them and their boat was directly west, so I pointed west.

Oh no, that wasn't the problem, I was the problem! how about that. I was in THEIR space, and I dared to revved my engine, oh they were so very upset, even the people operating the boat screamed at me that I run over their divers, when at all times I had their float in sight. Not sure if the divers were close to the surface away from the flag, I guess that is a possibility even if not a very wise one. Most likely their point of view (as in actual angle of view) made it look like I was too close to their divers... which makes me think, why would they wait until the divers surfaced to tell me I was over them? the reason to live boat in South Florida is to have a boat that would literally get between any approaching vessel and the divers, that's what I do and what I expect to be done when I'm diving.

They decided to take a photo of my boat and of me I assumed. Well I didn't take any pictures, I should have. It turns out all 3 of the divers surfaced with tickle sticks, kinda uncool since lobster season was closed that day, but I did get the boat registration number and look them up. There was a funny thing among all of it, one of the people on the boat, not sure if a diver or just the people on board kept asking one of my freedivers why was he revving the engine?... he's like: really? I'm floating in the water with a sling and a snorkel, no engines to rev!

So if you were one of those 3 divers telling me with a high degree of indignation that "You had a dive flag" I'd like to say, Yes you did, and that was why you did not get run over, if you didn't like to have an engine above you, maybe you should have given instructions to the boat escorting you to stop any boat from getting close to your float. I operated the boat around your float the way I would've if any family member was towing it.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

sounds like FWC would have liked to get involved if they had tickle sticks out of season..

 

[scuba5150]

The Florida law states: "Any person operating a vessel on waters other than a river, inlet, or navigation channel must make a reasonable effort to maintain a distance of at least 300 feet from any divers-down flag."

It seems that in this case, you would have had the obligation to "give way" to the divers-down flag. Unless I'm missing something from your post, you would have easily been able to recover your free divers and stay 300 feet away from the divers-down flag. It would have been inconvenient for you and the divers, but it would have been a "reasonable effort" as required by the law.

Just sayin'

 

[Zieg]

The Florida law states: "Any person operating a vessel on waters other than a river, inlet, or navigation channel must make a reasonable effort to maintain a distance of at least 300 feet from any divers-down flag."

It seems that in this case, you would have had the obligation to "give way" to the divers-down flag. Unless I'm missing something from your post, you would have easily been able to recover your free divers and stay 300 feet away from the divers-down flag. It would have been inconvenient for you and the divers, but it would have been a "reasonable effort" as required by the law.

Just sayin'

Seems to me to be reasonable, that freedivers have as much right to a reef as scuba divers. I don't feel that that the boat in this case has any obligation to "give way". Ana stated that she kept their flag in sight at all times. (she was probably doing a better job of watching their divers than they did.) They just got a little excited they heard an engine rev. I know that in my boat we use engine revs as a form of communication with our divers. There are just way too many people who think that their dive flag gives them some special powers over all other boats and divers.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The Florida law states: "Any person operating a vessel on waters other than a river, inlet, or navigation channel must make a reasonable effort to maintain a distance of at least 300 feet from any divers-down flag."

It seems that in this case, you would have had the obligation to "give way" to the divers-down flag. Unless I'm missing something from your post, you would have easily been able to recover your free divers and stay 300 feet away from the divers-down flag. It would have been inconvenient for you and the divers, but it would have been a "reasonable effort" as required by the law.

Just sayin'

Of course there is this, as well....

6) Any vessel other than a law enforcement or rescue vessel that approaches within 100 feet of a divers-down flag on a river, inlet, or navigation channel, or within 300 feet of a divers-down flag on waters other than a river, inlet, or navigation channel, must proceed no faster than is necessary to maintain headway and steerageway.​

 

[Ana]

I suppose that only by seeing an aerial view of the boats in relationship to the scuba divers and free divers, one could know exactly how far we were from each other.

"given way" to their flag meant leaving my free divers unattended. and that doesn't sound like a reasonable action to me on that location.

My take on this situation is that if you want to be in a busy area you need to learn to share. Group A using the ocean runs into group B, does either of these two groups has preference ? I don't think so, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I was upset that day but thinking back, the only thing I should've done differently was to not engage once they surfaced, let them be angry and continue about my business.
As far as "the Law" I get the feeling this would have been interpreted in as many ways as judges were involved, there were plenty of dive flags for sure, would the biggest/smallest flag had the preference? the group with more/less ability to move? the size of the boat? Or would a reasonable judge would've told us: nothing happened, it was all about perceptions, go get a life?

just wondering

 

[Steve_C]

Not a freediver, but would not having a float in the water near the freedivers have the effect of requiring the other boat to stay away from your guys. From the other boats point of view they see you but could they see your divers and where they were. Why not mark the location of your divers.

 

[Ana]

Yes they carried a float, different style than what we carry for scuba, very bright orange float with just as bright orange 1" line.

So any boat operator paying attention could spot them easily. The thing is: these waters are not exactly filled with "attentive" boaters.

Their line is positive and depending on a couple of factors it can be all stretched out, the length of this line is proportional to how deep the freediver is going. And this is why I mentioned that I approached them to warned them of a scuba float about to tangle with their line.

 

[sportxlh]

Of course there is this, as well....

6) Any vessel other than a law enforcement or rescue vessel that approaches within 100 feet of a divers-down flag on a river, inlet, or navigation channel, or within 300 feet of a divers-down flag on waters other than a river, inlet, or navigation channel, must proceed no faster than is necessary to maintain headway and steerageway.​

This is the key point, in my opinion (for what that's worth). A boat must make reasonable effort to stay away from a divers down flag, but if it can't for some reason, then it needs be operated in a reasonable manner, essentially at idle speed or enough speed to keep control. My bet is that any jury or judge would find that Ana was operating reasonably by trying to protect free-divers that are very exposed to passing boat traffic or assisting vulnerable free-divers that might need to get rid of a catch before a reef shark harasses them: this assumes she was essentially at idle or just enough power to maintain control.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

There are many idiots operating boats in South Florida. I have seen a "professional scuba charter captain" operate his boat in an extremely dangerous and irresponsible manner that only served to endanger divers - all in a misguided attempt to protect divers from other boats.

The reality of the situation it is dangerous to be doing drift diving. If the sun is low, divers are scattered all over, if the water is choppy etc. these all represent significant impediments to knowing exactly where divers are.

Another undeniable fact is that freedivers are in much greater danger. Scuba divers, (if they are smart) are NEVER swimming laterally at a very shallow depth as they ascend. Doing this means the diver is NOT ascending under his bubbles.

The bubbles of a scuba diver are a reasonably good marker for a diver and if the boat is being operated SLOWLY and carefully and the operator is attentive... then it should not be too easy to chop up a scuba diver. Furthermore.. if they are not ascending very close to a surface float, then it is prudent to launch an SMB.

Freedivers are coming up without bubbles, are unable to delay their ascent for any meaningful period, and when they reach a depth of 10 feet they should be quite buoyant.. they are shooting up riding their excess buoyancy- for these reasons, freedivers are much more vulnerable. So a boat operator is perfectly reasonable to be following and protecting freedivers more closely.

Another reality check is that normally when diving in a current, freedivers will be moving much faster than scuba divers. Typically the surface current is fast, so the freedivers will be moving faster. Plus scuba divers tend to stop and pause and delay along the bottom; freedivers don't do this (and if they do, it is only for 10 or 40 seconds as they hold their breath on the bottom). This significant difference can be used to help keep the groups of divers separated.

I have drifted over and through a group of scuba divers (when freediving) many, many times. Generally, both boat operators will try to simply back off and allow the the two groups to move past each other, but the potential for entanglement of the floats is a real pain.

Not sure how that all relates to this specific instance, but those are my observations based on many days on the water doing both freediving and scuba.