What exactly is a "cattle boat" in your definition?

[Dr Neil]

Cattle boats. Even a six pack can be one. It's about the way the crew treats the divers, not about the divers. Do they herd you on and off the boat, limiting bottom times, or forcing you to follow around a DM in a group? Are they off to the same sites on the same schedules every day? Do they expect everyone to dive their al80's? have rules about wearing computers and minimum tank PSI? Do they hate doubles, refuse rebreather divers, insist there be no deco dives? Is it all about the numbers, and is their goal to get you in and out of the water as fast as they can so they can head back to the docks for the next group?

Rick you nailed it.

You can also include pushing divers off the boat in groups of 12 and not even attempt to groups of according to experience.

I also had a cattle drover once tell me to "like it or leave it" whe he gave my son an al80 tank with less than 2400 psi.

 

[Dr Neil]

Capt. Hook's in Marathon (who has a small boat) calls your name and asks for your returning pressure, I like that idea, it makes sure that everyone is on board by name.

Doing something everytime, no matter how inane is may seem will cause you to do it in all situations. Some call it being "anal" but it works!

Now if the DM calling roll moo'd at you, then perhaps it could be considered a cattle boat. However, don't confuse safe practices with "roll 'em roll 'em roll 'em, just keep those doggies movin'"

Calling roll, asking for beginning and ending pressure, using DAN Tags, and any number of accountability procedures is good practice. In fact, a cattle boat is one that really doesn't have good accountability.

 

[stadevene]

Our liveaboard trip in Australia would likely be considered a cattle call. Perhaps 10 certified divers and around 15+ backpackers. It was a busy boat, but it wasn't out of control. The crew kept a tight ship and there were enough instructors/DMs to go around.

They also had a strict head count policy:
- everyone was assigned a safety number
- on the platform you gave your name, number, starting pressure, who you were diving with and they clocked your time in.
- coming back out you gave your number, your ending pressure, and you had to sign the form.
- before moving dive locations the captain went around asking everyone for their safety numbers and checked them off on his list.

I suspect some or perhaps all of this was government regulations thanks to the "open water" event but it was really well done. I thought the practice was really good.

In Utila they had a list of divers and would check them off before motoring away.

 

[DennisS]

I was down at Looe Key recently and found out what a cattle boat was. A large pontoon boat with 46 people aboard, equally divided between snorkelers and divers. It was nice diving once you were in the water and they sold beer on the way back in. It was my first time on a cattle boat, lots of friendly tourists. Everyone had their ID number tag.