Sunset Divers Fined for Safety Breach

[KathyV]

The article at the link below is from the Cayman Compass. I have never dived with Sunset so I don't have any experience with them and I'm not trying to start an argument, but "no lookout on-board the boat for 5 to 7 minutes while divers were in the water" and a "a brief period when no one was on board" does concern me.

What happens if someone has a medical emergency and there isn't a lookout to spot them and bring help? 5 to 7 minutes can be a very long time in some situations. What if someone comes back to the boat in need of urgent help and no one is on board?

I was on a Reef Divers boat off Cayman Brac just a few months ago when the mooring line suddenly broke while the divers were in the water. Everything was handled professionally. The divemaster on the boat (Jeff) went to the next mooring (moving in the direction of the surface current) and secured the boat and radioed the dive shop to report the incident. The divemaster in the water (Barb) gathered everyone together on the surface, made sure that she had everybody, told us what was going on and reminded us to inflate our BCs and stay together, and then she escorted us in a group swim over to the new location. It wasn't a bad swim because we were moving with the current.

But what if no one had been on the boat "for a brief period" when the mooring line suddenly broke? I might not be typing this right now!

Just my opinion, but I think that it is a good thing that Sunset Divers were fined; even if the absent lookout and the empty boat weren't related to the specific diver's death.

Dive operator fined for safety breach :: Cayman Compass

 

[danvolker]

The wife was swimming back on the surface with the husband.....She did not even know she had lost him....If anyone deserves the fine, it was the wife, for being such a poor buddy.

 

[knotical]

Sunset Divers broke the law. Had probably done it before, perhaps routinely. It had no bearing on the death, although the incident brought the practice to light. In other happenstance it could have been significant. They earned the fine.

The wife probably suffered sufficiently.

 

[Doctorfish]

The fine was trivial. More like a slap on the wrist than a deterrent for repetition.

I've been on a dive when the mooring broke free as well. If no one was on the boat at the time, would have been a catastrophe fo the divers in the water.

In the Sunset situation, the Cayman Compass article was hard to understand. Not sure I have ever been on a dive boat where one group went diving and the other stayed aboard until they came up.

---------- Post added January 17th, 2015 at 10:40 AM ----------

Sounds like BS.

 

[tajkd]

If you read the description of what "should happen" compared to what actually happened on board, you'll see it is a joke. In my experience, there is never a time when one entire group of divers will wait for another group to exit the water before going in. I'm sure they have two groups in water many times.

That said, a DM should never be acting as a look-out anyway. There are important things to observe before the divers get in the water. The article says there was a staff member on board but it implies that that member was unable to act as lookout. I wonder what that means.

 

[KathyV]

The fine was trivial. More like a slap on the wrist than a deterrent for repetition....In the Sunset situation, the Cayman Compass article was hard to understand. Not sure I have ever been on a dive boat where one group went diving and the other stayed aboard until they came up...

When I read that I thought "cattle boat"! I agree that the fine was trivial but hopefully the exposure and bad publicity and the fact that there was an associated, but unrelated, death will be a deterrent.

I would never consider diving with them after reading about "no lookout" and "no one on board" while divers were in the water. I can't help but wonder "what other safety steps might they be skipping?"

 

[drrich2]

...but "no lookout on-board the boat for 5 to 7 minutes while divers were in the water" ... does concern me.

What happens if someone has a medical emergency and there isn't a lookout to spot them and bring help? 5 to 7 minutes can be a very long time in some situations. What if someone comes back to the boat in need of urgent help and no one is on board?

Nobody on a dive boat at any time would be alarming, of course. The issue of a look-out, and what if someone surfaced with a medical (or other, for that matter) emergency & wasn't spotted quickly, though, got me thinking.

Many people shore dive, such as in Bonaire & Curacao, and there's no lookout posted. Or an expectation of one.

This gets back to the old debate about what duty of care a dive op. has to the divers. Is it a water taxi to & from the dive site? Is the supposedly to continually supervise the divers, have them check & report their gas pressure remaining, etc...?

An empty boat is worrisome. To what extent is content surface monitoring an industry standard?

Richard.

 

[danvolker]

Maybe some boats should advertise that they HAVE "Babysitter/Lifeguarding Services" for novice & intermediate OW divers....and other boats that would advertise they DO NOT HAVE BABYSITTING OR LIFeGUARDING SERVICES for Novice or Intermediate divers....

Personally Sandra and I go out on Splashdown in Boynton, because they make it very clear to new divers that they are NOT a babysitting service, and that they do NOT like large groups of students....the boat "caters" to advanced divers ( not to be confused by the mis-named categorization of divers with an AOW card, that are as likely as not, to be unskilled novices).

When a boat caters to advanced divers, the EXPERIENCE of diving is much better for the advanced divers, than it would be on a boat catering to novices...

For this incident where the husband and wife buddy team were involved, and the husband was lost, clearly the most basic skills were lacking, and these two should have chosen a boat with a babysitting service. This reminds me of the lady that sued the Dunkin Doughnuts ( or Mcdonalds, whatever), for not warning her that she could burn herself with their very hot coffee....when she spilled it on herself and got actual burns from it....In our defective legal system, the individual does NOT need to take blAME for what is clearly their own fault.

 

[KathyV]

Nobody on a dive boat at any time would be alarming, of course. The issue of a look-out, and what if someone surfaced with a medical (or other, for that matter) emergency & wasn't spotted quickly, though, got me thinking. Many people shore dive, such as in Bonaire & Curacao, and there's no lookout posted. Or an expectation of one. This gets back to the old debate about what duty of care a dive op. has to the divers. Is it a water taxi to & from the dive site? Is the supposedly to continually supervise the divers, have them check & report their gas pressure remaining, etc...?

You are right of course, in that shore diving is a little risky because you are on your own. I am always comforted by the fact that we are close to shore if anything goes wrong - but we know that divers can get into trouble near shore and in shallow water, so that is a somewhat self-serving argument.

Over the years we have had a few minor issues come up during shore dives and in those cases I was glad that we dive as a buddy team because help was close at hand. Once on Bonaire my husband's high-pressure hose suddenly split and his air started bubbling out. I gave him my octopus, we locked arms, ascended safely and made our way to shore. I waited on shore with the equipment while he walked back to the car and moved it close to our new location. No big deal.

Just last fall, we were diving the Turtle Reef shore dive on Grand Cayman and I was using a brand new weight belt for the first time. I guess it was stiff or something because apparently I didn't secure it tightly, although I thought it was on tight. At about 15 minutes into our dive at 60 ft, it suddenly slipped off and I went shooting toward the surface. I did what I was supposed to do and kept exhaling as I ascended but I wasn't able to dump the air in my BC quite fast enough.

Luckily my husband saw the belt and brought it up to me. I got it back on and we headed back to shore. This incident once again convinced me that your own training and a good buddy are the best safety equipment you can have.

But there are also risks unique to diving out in the open ocean, often (especially on liveaboards) with no land in sight. I guess I'm used to being assured during the boat orientation that someone is always on lookout while divers are in the water and will bring help if you signal that you are in trouble; like a medical emergency. I am sure that is partly to minimize their liability, but I am happy about it.

We do not enjoy having a babysitter and most times we don't play follow-the-leader underwater; but frankly, if I am paying $100 for boat dives instead of $20 for shore dives, I figure part of that money includes the extra safety and security of having dive professionals nearby and alert in case they are needed. I would feel a bit short-changed to discover that they were only a water taxi. But that doesn't mean that we can forget our training and not feel responsible for our own safety.

It's sort of like the difference of going to the drug store to buy over the counter medicines to treat myself versus going to a doctor, asking for his expertise, and paying for his services. There are risks associated with both behaviors, but you usually expect to get more for your money from a professional.

I don't think I have ever had a divemaster check my remaining gas pressure, but on liveaboards they often take your interval time, dive time, and depth after a dive (or ask you to write it on whiteboard) but that's because you can do so many dives at your leisure on a liveaboard - so it's for your safety and to protect their liability. They also ask you to document when you go in and out of the water, again for safety reasons.