Never leave a diver behind

[Rick Murchison]

Despite all efforts to the contrary, there is, occasionally, a diver or divers left behind by dive boats.

A top notch Captain and boat do not leave divers behind, they have systems in place and backups for systems so that they do not have to have apologists rushing about looking for others to blame.

This thread is to explore ideas that satisfy Thass' "systems in place" that will work all the time, every time.
Bear in mind that in the case that precipitated this thread, people lied to the "head counter" who, believing the liars, counted a head that wasn't there. The head counter reported "all aboard" to the captain, and the captain believed him. The system in place must avoid deception, even intentional deception.
Some sticky wickets to consider in coming up with the "ultimate plan"
1. Just because someone says they're "present" doesn't mean they're present.
2. Just because all the tanks (or tags) are aboard doesn't mean all the bodies are.
3. Just because you told 'em to stand in one place doesn't mean they will.
4. There may be strangers in the group who aren't known to any of the crew.
5. Just because everybody was there 10 seconds ago doesn't mean they're still there now.
---
Rick

 

[Garrobo]

Have the captain do the head count and visually verify that the diver is on board.

 

[Geoff_H]

Have someone visually ID everyone on the boat.

Don't leave a divesite until someone is sure the numbers of divers who were on at the dock matches the numbers of heads onboard. You might need to keep everyone still for 60 seconds on a big boat but it's definitely possible.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Have the captain do the head count and visually verify that the diver is on board.

That sounds so easy... just count heads. But how do you "visually verify" everyone's presence? Joe Doe moves while you're checking the head for the one you're short, who isn't in the head but you count Joe twice 'cause he's changed shirts & looks like a different guy in a different place since the first time you counted him; Sally jumps in to take a pee after she's been counted and after you're back in the wheel house... etc...
Rick

 

[Jeff Toorish]

Rick,

Excellent thread.

A lot of this depends on the size of the boat, I believe. If it's a six-pack, it should be relatively easy for the skipper to call roll and do a visual count.

As the boat gets bigger and the number of divers increases, the issue becomes more complicated.

I have been on huge catamarans in the caribbean, close to a sixty divers and snorkelers. One person doing a roll call and count would have been ineffective. In that case, the boat was broken into sections, and then subsections. Each 5 or 6 divers had a divemaster who was responsible to do the count for their group. They then reported to the captain; which worked pretty well.

As for a foolproof method, I doubt that is practical, if even possible. We could develop a system whereby every diver carried some sort of key, by which the boat could not move until everyone was aboard. (Probably have to be a locked backup set someplace in the event a diver lost his or her key.) But on a huge boat, that would be pretty impractical.

Personally, I do believe crews need to ALWAYS do roll calls, perhaps in conjunction with a tag system. At the beginning of the trip, they should make clear that answering for someone else constitutes a crime (fraud, maybe?). If someone were left behind because of a false answer by someone else, prosecution ensues. I doubt most boats would do that, however.

Of course, all this is predicated on the notion that the boat crew and captain have their act together.

Just some thoughts.

Jeff

 

[Rick Murchison]

You might need to keep everyone still for 60 seconds on a big boat but it's definitely possible.

No it isn't. At least not all the time, every time. A system that depends on folks staying still is not foolproof enough.
Rick

 

[fallcreek196]

My first experience with an ocean dive was with the M/V Fling going to the Flower Gardens, a hundred miles off the coast of Texas. After every dive, a crew member came to you and verbally and visually checked you off the attendance book. Even when I was in my bunk sick the next day due to seasickness, they came down to my bunk to do a visual and verbal check and made sure I was accounted for. That seems like a sure fire way to account for each individual diver. I know they have a diver capacity of 34 divers. We did not move to the next site until the count was complete.
Seems like a very effective method to prevent any occurances of leaving a diver behind.

 

[seaducer]

No it isn't. At least not all the time, every time. A system that depends on folks staying still is not foolproof enough.
Rick

Well, this really may not be practical, at least not for small boats, but why not a finger tip scanner? Liveaboards and large 20+ guest boats could probably afford one easily enough. Have every guest scan in before leaving the dock, then getting in and out of the water...

As for visual ID on smaller boats, a digital camera connected to a laptop will help out captains with poor memories for faces...

 

[Kamchatka]

IIRC, the now defunct Aqua-nuts (Key Largo) had a problem which resulted in their procedure of issuing tokens before the dive and collecting them afterwards. Darrell Stadler, current owner of Island Ventures, captained for Aqua-nuts and was involved with this procedure. He might be able to add details or correct any of my errors.

 

[D_B]

On my trip on a livaboard to the dry tortugas, they did a head count and a had board with all names that each person signed before going on that dive and after the dive