The Great Blue Hole: Business as Usual

[Tortuga68]

...when he had a diver out of gas...

I didn't see where it was said that "Tim" was OOG?

The simple fact of the matter is Tim should never have been allowed on this dive...

QFT

 

[themagni]

I have never been to Belize, so I perhaps I may say things that I don't understand but anyway...

Why the dive planning to 130' ? Is there something exceptional (e.g. stalactites?) that cannot be seen at 100'? I'm asking, because from my experience, divers tend to have their saying when the instructor/DM gives the briefing for the dive, and they discover it's going to be a rather deep one. Why divers care? Some do try to respect their certification limits, others know that such a deep dive means also a *shorter* dive, and/or it may limit the following dives for the following day/s, or they may be concerned of insurance issues if something goes wrong and it was discovered that they deliberately planned a dive beyond cert level...

It's not to 130'. They say it's to 130' but it's deeper than that. When I did my BH dive, I stopped at 152' and the DM was deeper than me. If they started advertising it as any deeper, odds are people would say "woah hey, that's not on this table." 130' is a stretch of the truth to get people to do the dive. It might also be a PADI thing, I don't know. I do know that 130' is a ... fabrication.

On the good note for operators, I understand they do placed an extra air tank with regulator- such a practice is not very common over here, and considered an extra precaution. I mean, for regular boats/liveaboards (i.e. sport divers). Tech cruises will have oxygen (or 50% O2) bottles on trapeze...

Third world. It's a lot harder to get your hands on a bottle of O2 down there. The clinics can't get gloves and syringes.

Reporting one instructor and one operation to the agencies that they represent doesn't really address the root of the problem. I'm part of the problem. I paid to go out there (yet again) and contributed to the economic pressure that encourages operators to continue to do this dive. The Blue Hole has an excellent safety record (IRT injuries that require care) and as long as that record remains intact and money from tourism keeps coming in, I'm fairly certain that the current local attitude towards the dive will persist.

One of the divers when I did the BH was on dive #5. He ran out of air at some point at the deepest part and shared with the instructor. I guess that's a planned-on thing.

Don't confuse "no reported accidents" with "the BH is safe". When I went down there there was a woman in the chamber before me and a Texan afterwards. Tourism is 1/3 of Belize's economy. It's not going to change. Not now, not ever. (I still can't quite feel all the parts of my hand. I left a note for the Texan, but I don't know if he even lived through the treatment.) It's the only dive where the shops can make money, and even then the profits are rusty-razor-thin.

---------- Post added July 9th, 2013 at 04:11 PM ----------

Perhaps if 'Tim's' dive experience had been prematurely shortened, he would have learned that the next time, he better speak up and make arrangements in advance to get a larger tank

I tried. The choices are AL80s or free diving. Unless you're bringing your own gas from home, you're using atmospheric mix. The Nitrox ratios available are "not prudent" on the BH.

 

[flots am]

I can't believe such a tremendous air hogger exists- must have probably taken an half empty cylinder to begin with?

@ 30'/minute descent, and a 2.5CFM RMV, it takes about 50 CuFt to get down to 130', so it's possible.

It would take a spectacular level of hoovering, but could be done.

flots

 

[peterbj7]

I have a bit of a problem with this. I'm not saying it didn't go exactly as described, but I've never seen anything like it there, and I've dived the BH more times than most, both recreationally and technically. I once ascended recreationally with two other people depending on my single tank, which certainly focussed my mind. I've probably seen 3 or 4 people very low on air on the ascent, but I've never seen or heard of anyone running low on the descent - until now. I've also seen extremely inexperienced people diving there, and at least one uncertified and totally inexperienced diver. Most recreational dives are run with one DM to no more than 6 guests, sometimes fewer, and in fact there are very few accidents that occur there - not that that means it's "safe". Most of what "the Magni" says I agree with, including the depth - I am told by operators I respect that they never go below 130ft, but my first-hand experience is that most go to 145-150ft.

I have taken students down the BH on technical dives, but I have never run a recreational trip there though I've been on countless. It's generally far from impressive, but as I said I've never seen it as bad as has been reported here. I'm left wondering what dive operation it was.

 

[Hank49]

When I was working on Boracay, Philippines we had a dive site that everyone heard about and wanted to do. But it was a blue water descent in heavy current to 30 meters, land on the edge of the wall and watch the show. Ascend as a group as much as possible based on the lowest air in the group, pop an SMB and do a safety or deco stop.

Not a beginner dive at all. The difference there, from the Blue Hole dives here, is that ALL shops were adamant about doing check out dives before anyone was taken there. Buoyancy control check and air consumption were gauged and only qualified divers could go.

This is what should be practiced in Belize. I have to admit, when I came here to check on my job offer (shrimp) I did a couple dives in San Pedro and was a bit....alarmed at the lack of safety relative to what we did in the Philippines. Granted, the Philippines has ripping currents but group awareness was lacking here with the DMs I dove with.

Why? Who knows. Cultural differences I guess.

 

[Mike]

but I've never seen or heard of anyone running low on the descent - until now.

I believe we can make the assumption that the diver wasn't low on air during the descent.

The correct assumption I would make is the dive master already knew the history of this diver from previous dives with him and how much of an air hog he was. He was premptively saving the air in the kids tank on the descent by letting him share with himself, thus giving the DM a head start on the air hog. If the kid used 1000 psi on the way down instead of the kids tank being 1000 psi lower after the descent he arrived with 1000 psi more by using the divemasters tank on the way down.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Just dove the Hole again the other day and as per usual, the group was kept to 130' depth. Yes, I have been in there when one or two divers were deeper at the sandy ledge, but in those cases the divers had the necessary prerequisites and had cleared it before hand. Sharks in the Hole but none at SS.

Halfmoon Wall was particularly lovely, with amazing viz, very fishie, and a minimum of four reef sharks checking in on us periodically. Aquarium at Long Caye was really fishie but viz was not in our favor. Still all in all a stellar day.

 

[Chilly_Dipper]

tl;dr: No tragedy. Smart kids. Amazed by both.

The instructor laughed and said something like: "Yeah. On every dive he's always going up when everyone else is at their turnaround pressure."

What else is there to say?

I honestly do no understand why these cattle boat DMs are not required to carrying pony bottles full of air with multiple octos.

The idea of sharing air with someone on the DESCENT of a dive because they've run out out is scary on so many levels it's not funny. At least if it's a stage they'd have 2 tanks available for when they make stupid decisions like continuing.

 

[diverrex]

I honestly do no understand why these cattle boat DMs are not required to carrying pony bottles full of air with multiple octos.

The idea of sharing air with someone on the DESCENT of a dive because they've run out out is scary on so many levels it's not funny. At least if it's a stage they'd have 2 tanks available for when they make stupid decisions like continuing.

As a comparison when you do the caverns on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico you are also given a 80 cf tank but the guide will have doubles even though the depths is relatively shallow, maybe 30' average, such that you use less than half the tank. Yes I know it's a cavern without an immediate surface overhead but you are never further from the surface than you are at the bottom of the Blue Hole. Just stating as a comparison even though you'll use less gas probably than at the Blue Hole the guide has his doubles.

 

[themagni]

I honestly do no understand why these cattle boat DMs are not required to carrying pony bottles full of air with multiple octos.

There aren't any rules. Don't worry man, I thought the same thing until I went down there. It's a 3rd-world country, you're there to provide tourist cash. In exchange they'll show you where the neat stuff is, but in terms of safety you are on your own.

In BC, I would have been chained to the deck or (depending on the DM) rendered unconcious by a blow to the head if I tried the stuff I almost got away with in Belize.