How does a diver get left behind?

[Wookie]

How does a diver go missing? How do they get left behind or how do they drift from the dive site? Certainly no captain sets out that day to lose a diver. I don't remember a single day in 18 years that I said to myself "I think I'll see how it is to leave a diver at the dive site today." None of my divemasters or deckhands ever said "That diver is such an a$$hole I think we should just leave them here."

So how do they get left behind, because it happens every year, it happens over and over, and it's the most visible dive accident that can happen, and one of the most preventable. I have no statistics, but it seems to happen most (or at least we hear about it the most) right here in the USA.

I drive a liveaboard. We're different than day boats, we get guests and get to keep them for a few days. We learn their names, we learn their diving styles, and we learn their air consumption. Of course, they are new to us when we get them, just like a day boat, but we have a lot more chances to lose one than a dayboat does.

I mentioned in another thread that I thought it was morally wrong to leave a diver behind. I questioned the operators morals and attitude. What I was really doing was calling out the Captain. It is unconscionable to leave a diver behind, and if you do, it means to me that you don't care enough about the diver to bother to recover them, or at least look for them. I stand by the assertion, whether it's on a liveaboard in Raja Ampat or a day boat in Miami, or a snorkel boat on the reef in Key West. Funny how the snorkel boats on the reef in Key West, all 6 of them, all carrying 149 passengers, all on the same little patch of reef can figure out how to do a head count or roll call or get their folks back and go home again, but a dive boat in Miami or LA or WPB can't get the simple concept of "take care of your passengers" down pat.

So how do divers get left behind? Well, you might think that the diver wants to go home, so we will rely on the diver to make sure that the captain knows they are on the boat. Well, you'd be wrong. Any system that relies on the diver to take an action to make sure they are safe will fail. When DAN came out with the DAN tag system, I said to myself and to DAN "That'll never work. It relies on the diver to take an action to show that they are doing what they need to do to keep themselves safe". It doesn't work. Divers will not act in their own best interests. I have a friend who runs a spearing liveaboard. all diving is "live boat", meaning hot drops, or the boat can engage it's propellers at any time. He gives a thorough safety briefing, thorough dive briefing, and then shouts at them as they are jumping off not to come up under the boat. Guess where the divers come up. Man, there is a 1000 horsepower meat chopper under the flat end, and people come up under the boat all the time. We tell our divers that if they come up away from the boat, and they are too tired to swim, raise their safety sausage and we'll come get them. We might get a sausage one out of ten times. So any system that relies on divers to keep themselves safe will fail. That includes roll call. Every day boat I've been on in the keys (every one) does roll call. Roll call relies on the diver to take an action. It relies on them to say "here". I watch this roll call. Sometimes I'll have my wife answer for me. Now, I'm 6'2" tall 300+# with flaming (fading to white) red hair down to my waist. She is 5'6", 145# blond. I don't sound much like her unless we're yelling, and I sure as heck don't look like her. Her answering for me at roll call has never been questioned.

So roll calls don't work. DAN tags don't work. The only thing that works is the Captain. Remember the captain I called out a while back? The Captain has to ensure everyone is on board. The Coast Guard (in the US) does not allow the Captain to delegate this. The Coast Guard holds the Captain responsible for every person on that boat. When the Captain is facing the ALJ, the excuse of "the deckhand (divemaster is not a recognized title) was supposed to count, or call, or check" doesn't fly. The Captain is responsible for every person on that boat, and if the boat leaves the dive site, it's because the captain didn't care enough to check that every person was on the boat. Because if they cared enough to do it, they would have done it. I'm not willing to lose my Captain's license because my deckhand didn't do their job, or I relied on a diver to do mine.

There are a lot of folks out there who don't like me. They don't like my boat, they don't like my wife, they don't like my crew. They think we have too many rules. They think that I take the fun out of diving. Perhaps it's true, because I think that fun comes in behind safety and cleanliness. I like to take liveaboard vacations. I typically don't like how they smell, and I'm always appalled at how safety is given lip service, but it's rarely apparent that safety is the most important thing in the operator's mind. It seems to be fun that is highest on the list. Oh, well, we had fun right up until the boat burned. Or, oh, well, we had a blast until we all had to go home because a diver got bent. Now, I can't prevent you from having a diving accident, and I can't stop you from getting lost, or drifting off the dive site, or having a heart attack, or getting eaten by a shark. But I can sure as heck not move the boat until you are back on it, regardless if whether you had fun or not.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

When I worked as a DM I frequently had a diver or two shout out during roll call,"he's down in the bunkroom!" I wanted to see everyone's faces when I called their names so I kindly reminded everyone that we wouldn't have time to make a third dive if I had to wait for someone to show up for roll call. That was the only thing that motivated some people to get everyone on deck.
On a trip to the oil rigs I was on the boat as a paying customer. Instructions pre-dive are very specific as to where divers will submerge and surface. After the Drifting Dan debacle Captains wanted no surprises. I knew I was the last one underwater so I was a bit surprised to find the boat gone when I surfaced. I saw the stern of a similar sized boat a mile away headed back to the harbor so I began climbing the ladder of the rigs in double 120s to ask the oil workers to radio my boat. Just as I was midway up the ladder I heard my name called by the DM. They had to move the boat to the opposite side of the rigs because one diver surfaced on the wrong side. Divers cannot be trusted to follow simple directions.

 

[Jax]

None of my divemasters or deckhands ever said "That diver is such an a$$hole I think we should just leave them here."

OMG, is that a relief!

(Not sure they haven't thought it, though. j/k)

My personal opinion is that, "The organization does well only those things the leader checks, or causes to be checked."

So yeah, the boat reflects the Captain. You are entirely correct.

 

[redacted]

It is quite reassuring to have the boat captain hunt you down after every dive and make sure you are present and well,

 

[lerpy]

Wookie, great write up. Working on a boat here in the St Lawrence river we take the same approach even, though we are max 16 passengers and are just running day runs. Ultimately the captain wants to know the number, and the captains I work with ( I am a deck hand ) take a count and I take a count, however the captain makes sure he always gets the right number. If we get a different number, we start again, if I get the right number and he doesn't, the captain doesn't take my word for it, we count again. We count until we both have the same, correct number without question. When we count we include roll call of names, and put eyes on people, no "he's in the head".

We often do drift dives, which can end up with divers scattered all over, and we gradually pluck them all out of the water. At times we have had three company boats all on the same drift, and sure enough some divers get on the wrong boat. Never have we said, " hey we have your guy don't worry". Once everyone is out of the water, if needed we will pull all three boats together and switch passengers until our manifest, match the boat, and counts are all done, and all captains are confident we have everyone.

There has been occasion where for safety we have had to cut away from a mooring to get a diver that was in a dangerous situation out of that situation, however we immediately return to the mooring, and when we are in spots where this could happen, we instruct the divers clearly that in the event of a diver leaving the site and ending up ( its often drifting into the shipping channel) needed to be picked up immediately, we will get them and quickly return to the mooring. As well in an emergency we will go and get the diver in distress however we will return to the mooring, or pick up and confirm all divers before heading to shore, unless there is another company boat or operator on the mooring that can pick up our divers, and the need for medical attention is critical.

 

[redacted]

"In the head" does not work with Wookie either. There is a guy with painted toenails who has the key.

 

[BoltSnap]

Wookie, great write up. Working on a boat here in the St Lawrence river we take the same approach even, though we are max 16 passengers and are just running day runs. Ultimately the captain wants to know the number, and the captains I work with ( I am a deck hand ) take a count and I take a count, however the captain makes sure he always gets the right number. If we get a different number, we start again, if I get the right number and he doesn't, the captain doesn't take my word for it, we count again. We count until we both have the same, correct number without question. When we count we include roll call of names, and put eyes on people, no "he's in the head".

We often do drift dives, which can end up with divers scattered all over, and we gradually pluck them all out of the water. At times we have had three company boats all on the same drift, and sure enough some divers get on the wrong boat. Never have we said, " hey we have your guy don't worry". Once everyone is out of the water, if needed we will pull all three boats together and switch passengers until our manifest, match the boat, and counts are all done, and all captains are confident we have everyone.

There has been occasion where for safety we have had to cut away from a mooring to get a diver that was in a dangerous situation out of that situation, however we immediately return to the mooring, and when we are in spots where this could happen, we instruct the divers clearly that in the event of a diver leaving the site and ending up ( its often drifting into the shipping channel) needed to be picked up immediately, we will get them and quickly return to the mooring. As well in an emergency we will go and get the diver in distress however we will return to the mooring, or pick up and confirm all divers before heading to shore, unless there is another company boat or operator on the mooring that can pick up our divers, and the need for medical attention is critical.

Why don't you use a small inflatable to pickup the stray divers or the ones that are having issue instead of you moving the big boat and leaving others unattended?

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Why don't you use a small inflatable to pickup the stray divers or the ones that are having issue instead of you moving the big boat and leaving others unattended?

In the St. Lawrence River it's pretty straight forward. With a handful of site exceptions, divers tend to follow the walls up to the surface and deploy DSMB's at the last deco or safety stop. If you aren't against the wall you are prop bait for 600 foot long lake freighters. So, if you are in the right spot you can surface and even hang out in waist deep water until pick up. It would be more of a pain to maneuver two boats in the swift current, wind, and eddies in narrow channels than it is to worry about just one boat. I usually wait with my DSMB deployed until the crew instructs me to swim to the boat. I'm pretty good about rolling the DSMB up and stowing it in my pocket while swimming fast for the boat. The skipper usually spins the boat to give you the ladder and to engage the props to avoid being blown onto an island the moment you are safely aboard. You've got some excellent boat captains in that part of Canada. Best diving in the world in my opinion.

 

[lerpy]

In the St. Lawrence River it's pretty straight forward. With a handful of site exceptions, divers tend to follow the walls up to the surface and deploy DSMB's at the last deco or safety stop. If you aren't against the wall you are prop bait for 600 foot long lake freighters. So, if you are in the right spot you can surface and even hang out in waist deep water until pick up. It would be more of a pain to maneuver two boats in the swift current, wind, and eddies in narrow channels than it is to worry about just one boat. I usually wait with my DSMB deployed until the crew instructs me to swim to the boat. I'm pretty good about rolling the DSMB up and stowing it in my pocket while swimming fast for the boat. The skipper usually spins the boat to give you the ladder and to engage the props to avoid being blown onto an island the moment you are safely aboard. You've got some excellent boat captains in that part of Canada. Best diving in the world in my opinion.

Trace, thanks for the kind words about diving the St Lawrence. We think we have some pretty good diving as well. Your response to the inflatable is right on as well. For the number of times a diver ends up in the channel, it is faster, easier and safer to move our boat into the channel and grab them, rather than trying to haul a little inflatable around. Our captains are pretty good at getting the boat to a diver, and swinging it around so they can grab the ladders. If need you grab the ladder, and I will tell you to hang on and we will just pull you out of the channel at low speed if needed to get out of the way and get the dive to safety. Thank you for waiting until the crew tells you to swim out, as a crew member that is appreciated.

 

[vincent54]

When I was left out to sea, it was the Captains fault. I did get a free boat dive my next trip so it worked out well.

It helps if the divers let the boat know you are a diver on the boat. . I don't usually socialize and my social anxiety worked against me. Captain said he didn't know I was on the boat with them.. I must have been forgettable, but was wearing a bright orange Harvey's, size XXL . Moral of the story, don't go boat diving farther than you can swim in.