RECREATIONAL DIVERS

Boat Drive Offs

Although it sounds pretty simple to count the number of divers going into the water and count the number of divers coming out of the water, it is surprising how frequently chartered dive operators simply drive off and leave divers stranded at sea. This can be a terrifying and even a fatal scenario.

Although the image of sharks comes first to mind, the real dangers are hypothermia and dehydration. Even in warm water, a diver can not survive for long periods of time immersed in water. In places where there are strong currents divers can surface miles from where the dive boat originally anchored. If divers are left at the dive site and any substantial period of time passes before the error is discovered, it may be extremely difficult to locate the stranded divers due to the fact that the divers are essentially a "needle in a hay stack" and have possibly traveled many miles from the original site. Of course, darkness does not help the situation. For this reason, there are many safety and signaling devices that could be employed by the diver. The adequacy of the training the diver received may also become an issue. The bottom line, however, is that there is simply no excuse for a dive boat operator leaving a diver stranded at sea. Leaving a diver stranded is inexcusable.

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