A Safety Sausage Can Save Your Life

The most dangerous thing you can meet diving is your own boat -- its prop, in particular -- however, other boats are just as dangerous, as Young Tai Hang tragically discovered. He lost his life after surfacing without carefully listening for approaching boats. On the February 17, the 54-year-old diver from Hong Kong died after he was struck in the head by a passing bangka boat, Myles II, of Apo Island, near Dumaguete in Negros Oriental in the Philippines.

He had been diving with his wife and two other Hong Kong nationals with Azure Beach Resort from another bangka, On a Whim. The skipper of Myles II, Juvy Baat, 28, has been charged with reckless imprudence resulting in homicide.

A safety sausage (delayed surface marker buoy) released from depth and before this diver broke the surface might have made all the difference. That is why they are commonly in use nowadays by dive guides at busy dive sites worldwide. If you are not intending to stay close to a guide or are diving in independent buddy pairs, you should consider it.