You misunderstand. All this indignation has little to do with saving lives. It is almost entirely about certified cave divers retaining access to "their" caves.
It is not "Their" or "our" caves,... it is the privilege (not the right) to dive these caves. It took the cave diving community years of hard work to get Eagles Nest opened up to cave divers. Now the careless actions of others is threatening to shut it back down. It is society's solution that 1 size fits all. It punishes those who took the time & spent the money to get the training, follow the rules & have the right mentality to dive these caves.
I disagree fully with the contention that "all" the indignation is about maintaining access to the caves. I fully believe most of it is an appropriate reaction to a needless death. On the other hand, that element is a part of it, and Tammy's response is accurate.
I don't understand why cave diving is different from other activities that are well known to be dangerous.
I live in Boulder, Colorado, where we have many superb rock climbing sites. Many of our residents were first class climbers before they moved here because of the easy access to great climbing sites. Many non-climbers like to go to the nearby canyons to picnic and watch these climbing experts at work. Unfortunately, the allure of climbing also brings people who do not have appropriate training and experience to some of these sites, and every year some of them fall to their deaths. Yet, we never hear anyone calling for these great climbing sites to be closed when that happens. Everyone feels it is a tragedy when an untrained climber dies, but they recognize that the fault lies with the climber, not the climb.
But when an untrained diver enters a cave and dies, there is frequently a call to close the cave, and frequently that call is heeded. It was done at Eagles Nest in the past, and some are calling for it to be done again. Because of some deaths years ago, one of the cave entrances at Ginnie Springs has a permanent grate over it so no one can get into it. The cave entrance at Morrison Springs, Florida, was dynamited by the sheriff after one person died in it. The cave entrance at the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, was filled with boulders and covered with a grate so it could not be entered after a death there. Possibly the very best cave diving site in Florida, a huge system, is closed to everyone except a specific group of divers that has talked the state into giving them exclusive rights to dive it.
So the threat of closure is very real. Those of us who have worked hard to get our training so that we have the necessary skills and equipment to visit these magnificent sites safely do indeed get a bit peeved when people who do not bother to be properly trained or equipped ruin it all for us.
---------- Post added December 29th, 2013 at 11:10 AM ----------
Do we know for sure they were found dead with empty tanks with them?
Yes. It was in the initial report.
