Canadian diver and buddy rescued near Apo Island, Philippines

[Diving Dubai]

I have a number of sympathies here.

1. Outside the US and Europe, PLB's can be hard to register, so unless you have a "home address" they can be out of the question.

2. I'm sure the divers wished for a loud dive alert horn, or a torch, but then how many of us who dive regularly and on known "home reefs" always take them? I certainly don't always take my torch on a dive (but always my dsmb and dive alert.

3. Hard decision for the boat crew, do you leave the spot where the divers first splashed and hunt around the ocean or do you search in the local area where they were last seen? Looking for bubble trails is often ineffective if the sea is less than flat clam with little current.

We, here ran an exercise for such an eventuality (because we dive in a remote location on the Strait of Hormuz).

We threw a weighted buoy overboard at the beginning of the 1st dive, at the end of the dive we waited and then started looking (1.5 hrs after putting the buoy in the water to simulate the decision process of an over time diver on a 1 hr dive). We knew we were looking for something at the surface. It took us 1 hr to find the buoy knowing the currents and the wind. We went hunting for it again after the second dive (total 4 hrs in the water) never did find it.

On another occasion we had a real incident with over time diver. We had 30 divers on the boat. We had enough gas to put some in the water to make a search of the reef, whilst others got into the chase boat armed with radios binoculars. As time wore on we enlisted the help of 4 other small local fishing boat (30' with outboards) run by local fishermen who knew the waters currents etc like the back of their hands.

We found the 2 divers after a total of 4 hours - 5 boats looking and the divers were only 3km away (washed off by the current) - both had 6' dsmb, and horns and torches.

Never ever under estimate how hard it is to find divers in open water, even more so if you're unsure whether they're on the surface or not

 

[Pearlman]

Looking at the pics - the boat seems to be a traditional bangka, with no speedboat in tow behind. Now unless all the divers on a boat are doing the drift dive, they are likely not going to abandon other divers below and come chasing after you.
This incident makes me wary of attempting a drift dive from a dive op that doesn't tow a speed boat behind.

P

 

[Tippytoes12]

Looking at the pics - the boat seems to be a traditional bangka, with no speedboat in tow behind. Now unless all the divers on a boat are doing the drift dive, they are likely not going to abandon other divers below and come chasing after you.
This incident makes me wary of attempting a drift dive from a dive op that doesn't tow a speed boat behind.

P

No bangka in The Philippines or in Indonesia that I have ever been on had a speedboat. The advantage of using the mothership is that people can stand on the roof looking for divers coming up. I have also found boat crews in the Philippines to be incredibly careful and ultra helpful. February is early in the season in the Philippines and it can be choppy on the surface in that area especially in the afternoons. It must have been terrible for all concerned , but diving is not without risks and at least they are OK.

 

[PygmySeahorse]

No bangka in The Philippines or in Indonesia that I have ever been on had a speedboat. The advantage of using the mothership is that people can stand on the roof looking for divers coming up. I have also found boat crews in the Philippines to be incredibly careful and ultra helpful. February is early in the season in the Philippines and it can be choppy on the surface in that area especially in the afternoons. It must have been terrible for all concerned , but diving is not without risks and at least they are OK.

Picking up a conversation about PLBs from earlier in this thread, I was wondering how many dive boats you'd been on in the Philippines and Indonesia that had GPS navigation capability? Where I've seen anything other than natural navigation, it's been using paper charts, and that's across the board from more budget operations to nice private island resorts, but I could be out of date.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Picking up a conversation about PLBs from earlier in this thread, I was wondering how many dive boats you'd been on in the Philippines and Indonesia that had GPS navigation capability? Where I've seen anything other than natural navigation, it's been using paper charts, and that's across the board from more budget operations to nice private island resorts, but I could be out of date.

If the only navigation capability a dive-op boat has is a paper nautical chart, then they would plot a course and heading to location on the chart based on the PLB's beacon GPS coordinates as relayed to the dive-ops land base from a Rescue Coordination Center, National SAR and/or foreign mission embassy. Even with no paper nautical chart and only a compass to reference from the dive-ops land base, any nearby local landmarks to aid dead-reckoning a position fix or at least a compass heading pointing to the PLB beacon's location can be conveyed by the Rescue Coordination Center.

 

[Diver Ty]

That’s why I carry my PLB1. After a couple hours of no response, I’ll launch it & let NOAA contact the local SAR authority & US Navy to find me.

View attachment 444629 View attachment 444630

does that work outside of the US?

 

[PygmySeahorse]

does that work outside of the US?

I wouldn't rely on it in Indonesia and the Philippines, because local SAR routinely don't have working boats or any fuel, and in Indonesia government numbers and email addresses change ALL THE TIME. I'd imagine it would work fine in most of the EU.

 

[Kevrumbo]

does that work outside of the US?

Yes.

This is how you "smartly" utilize a PLB as your last best chance of rescue: You supply all information about your itinerary, your nearest foreign mission Embassy/Consulate (i.g. US if US Citizen; Canada if Canadian etc), and cell phone contact numbers of the Dive Operation or Resort that you're locally diving with, and give this info to your designated Emergency Contact beforehand (a friend or relative who knows you're traveling & diving in some remote area of the world). The Rescue Coordination Center of the particular country that your PLB is registered in will call this Emergency Contact to verify that you are traveling abroad and that you may be potentially lost at sea upon receiving a bonafide emergency beacon activation of the PLB that uniquely identifies YOU.

The national SAR assets of the particular country you are visiting are then notified to go search for you, as well as the local Dive Ops/Resort (because you wisely gave their base cell phone operations call number beforehand to your Emergency Contact), given the GPS signal coordinates determined by the COSPAS/SARSAT System as it fixes on the location of your PLB's activation.

 

[PygmySeahorse]

If the only navigation capability a dive-op boat has is a paper nautical chart, then they would plot a course and heading to location on the chart based on the PLB's beacon GPS coordinates as relayed to the dive-ops land base from a Rescue Coordination Center, National SAR and/or foreign mission embassy. Even with no paper nautical chart and only a compass to reference from the dive-ops land base, any nearby local landmarks to aid dead-reckoning a position fix or at least a compass heading pointing to the PLB beacon's location can be conveyed by the Rescue Coordination Center.

That's good to know. How would they link the GPS to the paper chart, bearing in mind that, certainly in Indonesia, and I believe also in the Philippines, paper charts are far from accurate? (I've been in an interesting discussion between the chief of the district police and a resort owner off Sulawesi about how many islands there were in a particular cluster - 112, 119, or somewhere in between: and I know that Philippines maps often omit shoals and I think occasionally still omit islands.) Would you use Google satellite view, or....?

EDIT: in terms of using Google satellite view, you're also going to have to factor in ropy satellite internet.,,,

 

[Kevrumbo]

That's good to know. How would they link the GPS to the paper chart, bearing in mind that, certainly in Indonesia, and I believe also in the Philippines, paper charts are far from accurate? (I've been in an interesting discussion between the chief of the district police and a resort owner off Sulawesi about how many islands there were in a particular cluster - 112, 119, or somewhere in between: and I know that Philippines maps often omit shoals and I think occasionally still omit islands.) Would you use Google satellite view, or....?

EDIT: in terms of using Google satellite view, you're also going to have to factor in ropy satellite internet.,,,

How to transfer GPS coordinates to a Nautical Chart:

I wouldn't rely on it in Indonesia and the Philippines, because local SAR routinely don't have working boats or any fuel, and in Indonesia government numbers and email addresses change ALL THE TIME. I'd imagine it would work fine in most of the EU.

If the dive operation has a business contact cell number for hire and reserving Scuba Diving Charters, then at least there is a communications link to relay your PLB's GPS location coordinates to aid in finding you in an emergency lost at sea scenario.

You do whatever you can to plan and increase the odds of being found alive ("insha' Allah" is not a plan @PygmySeahorse ). . .