Lost at Sea - Again?

Undercurrent reports in detail about diving disasters when other media, supported by advertising revenue, often gloss over them, not wishing to make diving look dangerous. Well, of course, diving shouldn't be dangerous if people are adequately trained and dive operations are run with safety in mind.

The days of divers being injured because they didn't understand the ramifications of breathing compressed air at depth are well behind us. It may surprise you that accidents such as bends, air embolisms, and others were common 50 years ago. Recreational scuba diving was in its infancy, and training agency courses were just becoming routine; before that time, many divers were self-taught.

Casually browsing the Undercurrent archives from the first decade of this century reveals the most common danger for divers happens at the surface when their boat fails to pick them up.

Divers 25-Hour Left at Sea Case Resolved, Thoughts While Drifting at Sea, Divers Vanish in Fiji, Left Behind in Florida, Another Couple Swept Away in Australia, Divers Drift Three Days off Placencia, Surviving Three Days in 68ºF Water, Staying Alive until the Boat Finds You, What Do You Do if You're Lost at Sea? - These are just a few of the stories you can find in our archives.

When Americans Tom and Eileen Lonergan went missing from Outer Edge at Australia's Great Barrier Reef in 1998, writer/director Chris Kentis and his wife, producer Laura Lau, read about it in Undercurrent. In 2003, they produced the feature film Open Water. The tragedy shook up Australia's diving safety regulations, but it didn't have much effect in other parts of the world. Undercurrent still regularly reports the tales of divers lost at the surface, and sometimes the conclusion is tragic.

Sherry Switzer Berger (Cincinnati, OH) posted on Facebook in January (we've edited it for brevity):

"Our local dive center was diving with Scuba-Cozumel on the Reef Cat dive boat on New Year's Eve and had an incident that could have been disastrous.

"Some divers had already surfaced and were on the boat. We watched the last two divers surface and get on the boat about 25 yards away. My husband and I stayed with the divemaster, and then the boat took off and left us.

"On the surface, the divemaster kept waving his SMB while my husband blew his whistle, and I yelled. The boat just kept going. After about 25 minutes in the water, with boats passing all around us, we were finally able to flag down a passing dive boat that radioed our boat to come back for us.

"No one on the boat was taking a head count. Other divers tried to tell the crew that we and our divemaster weren't on the boat. (I am guessing the language barrier was an issue, too.)

"This is inexcusable for any dive operation. Every dive boat captain should take head counts and/or roll calls at the end of each dive. To leave their own divemaster shows how lax this operation is with diver safety."

So, despite all the publicity given to divers going missing at the surface, it still happens.

What Precautions Should You Take?

You must first ensure you will be missed if the boat is about to leave without you. The Lonergans were introverted and didn't speak to any other Outer Edge passengers. So, it's a wise precaution to introduce yourself to all the other divers on board as soon as you have the chance.

Of course, the boat operator should have a foolproof system for checking divers in and out of the water. It's amazing how lax some can be, relying on divers to check themselves in or out. A boat operator who relies on this system is asking for trouble. Divers who come back on board are full of excitement and tales of the dive. Signing back in is often the last thing on their minds.

The diver who forgets and hastens to his cabin for a shower after a dive can put a spanner in the works of the self-check system. Is he in his cabin, or is he still in the water? Would the crew still look for him if he hasn't signed in? Dive boat operators should take responsibility for this crucial procedure and not leave it to the passengers.

Second, a crew member should specifically be assigned the task of scanning the ocean for anyone who surfaces away from the boat. They should have some means of recovery, such as an easily accessed annex boat or a dinghy. A crew member on smaller day boats must always track divers away from the boat until the dive boat can move off to pick up divers unable to reach the boat.

And divers have a responsibility. Their heads are not easily seen if the sea is not perfectly calm, so it's essential to carry a good-sized surface marker (or safety sausage) with a self-sealing end that will stay inflated even if the user lets go of it. In the past, I often recommended that divers carry a large flag on a six-foot readily extended pole that they strapped on the tank until needed.

These were once common in the ripping currents of the Maldives but seem to have gone out of fashion, and today, we know of no manufacturer.

Don't Rely Solely on Modern Technology

Some divers may believe that if they're adrift, they can buy safety by relying on technology to find them, such as personal locator beacons (PLBs), but it's good old-fashioned, low-tech solutions that count when the chips are down.

The electronic marvels available today would be great if they always worked, but is the battery fully charged? Is the signal being received by anyone? So, don't expect to rely only on technology. Carry your own low-tech safety devices too.

A diver's flashlight (fully charged) can be a lifesaver. So often, divers are found by the lights from their dive lights once darkness has fallen. Kim and Nathan Maker spent nearly two days drifting in the Gulf of Mexico last July after they were swept away from the MV Fling. It was Kim's flashlight that attracted the Coast Guard rescue plane.

Be proactive in staying safe at the surface. Make sure the boat operator knows you are missing, and make yourself easy to find.

Finally, the knowledge of the local word for "Stop!" (¡Detener! in Spanish, Arrêt! in French, Berhenti! in Bahasa Indonesian) can be essential when language might be a problem when communicating with a local helmsman. Shout it out!