Tough Punishment for an Unauthorized Dive Boat Buoy Line

Sané Richmond, the owner of Tetamanu Diving in Fakarava, French Polynesia, was fined the equivalent of US$89,000 and sentenced to a year in jail for installing an unauthorized buoyed line and endangering lives. Fakarava is a well-known site for taking divers to join hundreds of sharks massing on incoming tides at the channel into a lagoon and the line gave divers something to grab in the strong current.

In the summer of 2019, the propeller of a visiting sailing yacht fouled the line, and the vessel finally grounded on the reef. Locals rescued its seven occupants. Richmond had installed a buoy line at the same place more than 12 years previously and had been replaced recently.

He alleged that other dive centers used the same line. He said had the inexperienced yacht skipper not left the channel with sails rigged at night in rough seas and an outgoing current, he would not have had a problem. Others alleged Richmond acted as if he owned the pass.