Newspaper article addresses enforcement of FL's Dive Flag Law

I'm glad to see the media is paying some attention to this so important safety issue. Let's hope the marine agencies step up enforcement this summer!

Divers demand crackdown on boaters who get too close
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission statistics reflect it's a low priority
May 27, 2011|By Wayne K. Roustan, Sun Sentinel

Link to full article: Divers demand crackdown on boaters who get too close - Sun Sentinel

Doesn't sound too promising. . . From the article:

In an experiment about two years ago, Bingham displayed a dive flag on a marked FWC boat and found that other boaters still came within 176 feet of the patrol boat.

"Even a law enforcement boat with a dive flag on the top of it, properly displayed, and it didn't matter," he said. "We wrote just as many tickets with a dive flag on a patrol boat as we did on [an unmarked] boat."

In many cases, Bingham said, other dive boats are to blame for dangerous dive-flag violations.

"A large percentage of violators are divers themselves. Isn't that ironic? Isn't that strange?" Bingham asked. "You'd think that divers would know better. They wouldn't want it to happen to them. It's astonishing really."