Callin major BS

[Thalassamania]

Scientists like young, not-so-bright recreational divers to do these kinds of dives because they have a hard time passing these kinds of dives past their Dive Control Boards.

I have to agree with the OP that the story is BS, but for rather difference reasons.

It is against Federal and institutional regulations to do anything like what Frank describes. A scientist doing that runs the risk of having their ability to submit grant applications curtailed and could be dismissed from their position, EVEN IF TENURED!

On the other hand, the Diving Control Boards that I've worked with over the years would have no problem approving a dive to 190 ft, conducted by a pair of divers with 190 ft. cards, in warm clear water, for the purpose of breaking off a coral branch. Doing the dive on air with an AL80 and US Navy tables would not give anyone heartburn. The divers conducting such a dive would have made AT LEAST 68 SUPERVISED dives, with AT LEAST 24 SUPERVISED dives below 100 ft and passed both written and practical examinations on the special problems of both deep and decompression diving.

 

[DCBC]

Is it even possible to go down to 190 ft and return to the surface with just one bottle of air, let alone spend 10 minutes down there hammering a piece of coral loose? Second of all, will coral even grow at 190 ft?

Yes and yes.

 

[k374]

I saw that show too and that was also my first reaction...***, because it didn't seem like there was anything else in sight besides his AL80 and yes they did say he has to "hurry back up" because he has only 5 mins of air. To add to it the guy was intensely banging at the rocks with a hammer, i'm thinking that would only increase his air consumption? Perhaps for TV it's just edited to stretch the truth and they are not really at 190'

 

[fishoutawater]

...and yes they did say he has to "hurry back up" because he has only 5 mins of air.

Yes! THAT's what made me yell BS at three in the morning!

 

[Hoomi]

Hollywood is famous for using footage that only marginally fits the situation. I've lost count of the number of times they've mixed and matched aircraft footage, such as showing a 747 descending on the runway, then cut to the undercarriage of a B-52 touching down. I was USAF so I tend to notice these things.

A Navy vet friend once told me with ample laughter about watching the Pearl Harbor movie a few years ago, and seeing a Tichonderoga class ship among the U.S. Fleet being attacked. The first Tichonderoga class ships were new in the 80s. Guaran-dang-teed if they'd had the Tichonderoga with its complement of missiles and the Phalanx CIWS, there would have been a whole lot more losses by the Japanese air wings that day.

The movie makers, though, needed footage of aircraft or ships, and grabbed ones that looked good for the scene they wanted, without much thought to whether it matched the previous footage or the era of the story. Truth be told, most people in the audience would never notice, as my son has often asked how the heck I spotted the wrong undercarriage on the landing plane, or what the difference was between the fighter plane that was taking off, and the one they show flying around.

IMDB often has a list of technical goofs in various shows, and some of those are hilarious.

As far as diving to 190' with a single 80, my thought was, "Freedivers have descended to something like 300' without any tank at all." Yeah, freedivers don't have quite the same deco concerns, but if they can dive and return that far on a single lungful of air, what can a practiced diver do with an entire tankful? (109m Freedive and for the record, I think that's nuts...)

 

[LouieLouie]

What type/kind of Coral is to be found at 190' that isn't also at 70' ?

Lophelia Pertusa is only found deeper than 130' or so.

 

[scubadada]

I have to agree with the OP that the story is BS, but for rather difference reasons.

It is against Federal and institutional regulations to do anything like what Frank describes. A scientist doing that runs the risk of having their ability to submit grant applications curtailed and could be dismissed from their position, EVEN IF TENURED!

On the other hand, the Diving Control Boards that I've worked with over the years would have no problem approving a dive to 190 ft, conducted by a pair of divers with 190 ft. cards, in warm clear water, for the purpose of breaking off a coral branch. Doing the dive on air with an AL80 and US Navy tables would not give anyone heartburn. The divers conducting such a dive would have made AT LEAST 68 SUPERVISED dives, with AT LEAST 24 SUPERVISED dives below 100 ft and passed both written and practical examinations on the special problems of both deep and decompression diving.

I'm with Thal on this topic, not that were're always of like mind, but this is relatively common sense. A diver of acceptable experience and training should have no problem on a bounce dive like that described.

Good diving, Craig

 

[irishsquid]

short hoses and they didnt die?!?!?!?!?!?!?

That's what allowed them to save on their oxygen consumption.

The more daring type/kinds...

Priceless!

 

[DandyDon]

What type/kind of Coral is to be found at 190' that isn't also at 70' ?

Several have answered the direct question, however - the object of the experiment as described was to harvest coral at that depth to grow in shallows, so as to support a theory that dead shallow reefs can be repopulated by corals below. They were after the same kind, not a different kind.

Personally, I think the Ice Age connection leaks. Yes, the world's oceans have fallen and risen during intense Glacial periods, as evidenced by the stalactites at 150 ft in Belize's Blue Hole, and yes coral reefs exposed then died to be repopulated later. However the fall in ocean depths then was slow enough that coral populations on shallow reefs simply populated deeper on the submerged rocks as the water level dropped over the years. When the water finally rose slowly, the reverse migration of the population occurred.

 

[Wookie]

It is against Federal and institutional regulations to do anything like what Frank describes. A scientist doing that runs the risk of having their ability to submit grant applications curtailed and could be dismissed from their position, EVEN IF TENURED!

I have been approached by more than 1 PI who was interested in obtaining samples from below a certain production platform in the GOM. The interest for the sample was to determine the amount of mercury in the drill cuttings, which were shunted to the bottom during re-work of a well. The platform was located within a National Marine Sanctuary. We were approached because the institution was unable to pass the diving past their DCB. There were no qualified scientific divers within the institution to perform the diving. They also could not get permission from the oil company to collect the sample, and knew we could dive there without raising suspicion. We chose not to make the dive either. So, it does happen. My experience with scientists is that the collection of data is supreme, and the logistics that go into that data collection are merely details. Bottom on that particular platform is 340 feet.