The Risks of Diving in Remote Places

In 2012, a British diving instructor, Melanie Stoddart, 38, on a dive trip to the Maldives, died after suffering decompression sickness near a remote island. It took nine hours to get her to a decompression chamber.

She was taken to the nearby Alimatha Aquatic Resort. No plane was available at night to transport her to the nearest hyperbaric facility, which was as many as 60 miles away. In fact, the Daily Mail reported that a speedboat arrived to evacuate her only after insurance checks were carried out.

Alex Bryant, who operates Emperor Divers liveaboards in the Maldives, told Undercurrent that nowadays Alimatha is, by speedboat, about 90 minutes from the nearest chamber.

The Maldives now has four recompression chambers on the atolls, stretching over 500 miles across the Indian Ocean. The tragedy, although it occurred more than 10 years ago, highlights the risks of diving off remote islands in countries such as Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the Philippines, or in areas like the Cocos Islands, the Galapagos Islands, or Mexico's Revillagigedos Islands.

Keep in mind, conservative diving is the key to staying alive. And have the insurance you need -- like that offered by DAN, the Diver's Alert Network -- to cover evacuation and chamber fees.