gopbroek
Contributor
What are your thoughts on requiring divers to carry a DSMB in Cozumel? My personal thoughts are that they should be strongly encouraged but I also fear that a diver inexperienced at deploying one risks entanglement when attempting to deploy one.
A few of the recent incidents I have been aware of are the losses of divers on 9 Feb 2016 at Santa Rosa and 19 Feb 2017 at Palancar. In both of these incidents, to the best of my knowledge the diver was left near the surface without a buoy with choppy conditions on the surface (not severe chop but less than ideal). Then there are divers being struck by boats. Last fall I spoke to a group of divers who got run over while on the surface, luckily one pushed off the side while another pushed off the bottom and narrowly missed the prop. Then I understand that on Monday the 20th at Palancar a diver was surfacing without a marker and was struck by a passing boat and took a prop strike to their forarm (I haven't heard how serious but hope not seriously)
Like I said before I am all for carrying a Buoy and practice deployment often but I also understand that many divers, even if they carry one, may never have deployed one.
A few of the recent incidents I have been aware of are the losses of divers on 9 Feb 2016 at Santa Rosa and 19 Feb 2017 at Palancar. In both of these incidents, to the best of my knowledge the diver was left near the surface without a buoy with choppy conditions on the surface (not severe chop but less than ideal). Then there are divers being struck by boats. Last fall I spoke to a group of divers who got run over while on the surface, luckily one pushed off the side while another pushed off the bottom and narrowly missed the prop. Then I understand that on Monday the 20th at Palancar a diver was surfacing without a marker and was struck by a passing boat and took a prop strike to their forarm (I haven't heard how serious but hope not seriously)
Like I said before I am all for carrying a Buoy and practice deployment often but I also understand that many divers, even if they carry one, may never have deployed one.