What are the dangers of fresh water diving?

[Crock]

Man, I hate Bulls.............I have read about attacks in the Mullica River in NJ back in the 1920's. They took out two kids swimming and a man who tried to save them. This was about twenty miles inland. They love murky water, salt or fresh. It's one of the only sharks that will hit you once, and come back and hit you again. We were just discussing them today. In the USA, one guy stated that they were found as far as the Illinois River. I've seen the show on them being up the Amazon, but it didn't seem that they would were aggresive to swimmers, let alone divers.

As a spearfishing diver, they are my biggest enemy.

Just pretend you are in Spain. Pull out your knife and have yourself a bull fight Ole.

 

[Nemrod]

Giant killer amoebas, they crawl into your tear ducts or nose and then eat your brains out, pretty cool.

N

 

[Togalive]

The only risk I can think of is one which you get in the ocean aswell, but seems to be more of an issue in bodies fresh water do to their confined space, and that is a lack of visibility. Living in Redding, CA, we have perfect examples of this. Lake Shasta is a nightmare to dive with depths of up to 500', standing submerged trees all around with lines stretched between them, boats constantly wizzing around overhead, and visibility rarely getting better than 4 feet while sometimes getting to absolutely zero if enough boats are out on the lake. Not to mention that if your going to dive in Shasta, you had better be prepared to meet some of the worlds largest sturgeon, catfish, and carp. Divers a few years back were sent to remove an obstruction from an intake to the dam (shasta dam is HUGE by the way) and when they approached what appeared to be a "...very large log" by the (at the time shut off) intake, it literally swam off and was later determined to be a sturgeon of undetermined size. Thats why I wont dive in shasta, and that is why most all divers from around here either go to Whiskeytown (not a clay bottom like shasta = better vis) where visibility is around 10-15', or out to the coast where its about the same or better. But even then, Whiskeytown Lake can have some terrible visibility if enough boats are out, or if a diver gets to stirring up the good 6'' of silt that sits on the bottom (you do that and its so fine, vis is ruined for the day in that area). So my conclusion would be that while visibility can be just as bad at times in the open ocean, it will probably have a higher chance of something going wrong in a confined body of fresh water by method of another man made object/danger i.e lines to be caught in etc. However, that being said, diving in the ocean is still considerably more dangerous imo.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Sas]

In one freshwater site I have dived there was this warning sign:

and at about 35m there was the danger of getting a parking ticket:

 

[Karl_H]

Big Waterfalls?!!!

Most cave networks are in freshwater and these can be the most dangerous of all diving environments without the right training.....

Viz-wise most freshwater caves are crystal clear, usually reduced viz is down to the divers themselves. Once the water is in contact with the sunlight the viz isn't so god though as mentioned in a few threads.

 

[highdesert]

Ummm ... drowning?

 

[Kingpatzer]

Dangers are more particular to specific locations than to the salinity of the water. Diving in the great salt lake is not going to have the same set of potential hazards as diving with the seals off of the coast of Dyer Island.

 

[meierdierck]

How about jet skis that use your flag as part of their racecourse, or boaters who try to pull your lift bag out of the water while you are doing a deco stop.... I think people (more specifically dumb people or people on vacation) are more of a hazard and a concern than anything ma nature has in store for you

 

[clockworkdiver]

Like the guy above retarted boaters they do not know what a dive flag is
Big thermocline drops

 

[adurso]

This: