Well, Robert Brooks has stated in the media that he knew Spivey was cave diving without proper training or certification. He also seemed to know he was diving EN, based on his comments. He also knew that he was diving with his uncertified son SOMEWHERE. He has not stated that he also knew he was taking his son cave diving... but it defies credulity to think that Brooks wasn't aware that Spivey was taking his son cave diving.
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Again, here are all the quotes I have read from recovery diver Robert Brooks...
"He approached me to be his mentor, and I told him I couldn't take him caving until he got his cave card."
"He said he loaned Spivey some equipment and urged him to take a course to get certified, but he kept putting it off."
"The sad thing is, I told him, 'One night they're going to call me to come get [your body]'"
If you have additional information or quotes then please do share so we can clear this up. Otherwise, I don't see anything in these quotes that implies that Brooks knew the kid was involved in diving in any way. In all three quotes he tells the father to get proper training. It seems to me that you are continuously tarnishing another person's reputation and implying he is somehow responsible for these deaths without providing any facts to back that up.
Everything else you said about the freinds and family I completely agree with. I personally find it appauling that the family and non-diving freinds allowed the kid to go cave diving with his father. Especially when his father had such a long history of being reckless and destroying lives. Unfortunately, the family and freinds are probably very naive about the dangers of cave diving without training and it seems some common sense was lacking.
... What do you think about a LEO encountering this pair returning from a dive and having the right to impound the child's dive gear. The activity is not the problem it was way that the activity was carried out that caused the death, the father had the right to do this but the child did not and certainly the father did not have the right to encourage or enable the son. With out getting testy what does the community think about that position.
I think that position makes a ton of sense. However, I would think that someone that understands the extreme danger of these dives (relative to shallow reef diving) would have had to witness this in order to get law enforcement involved. In addition, that person would have to make the LEO, social worker, etc. understand why this is child endangerment and not just a father taking his son diving.
So, tell me why a "license" system as already in place elsewhere to protect caves and cave divers (i.e. a simple web based system which can be largely automated and is cheap, but effective) is something which "Cave Organizations" can't put in place to [further] protect caves and [further] reduce risk/fatalities (in addition to putting up the warning signs which, provocatively I think, a CNN journalist said "not every single diver reads... so we have this tragedy...")?
A CNN journalist with zero knowledge of cave diving is hardly a reliable source to quote on the details of what happended here. It is impossible not to see these warning signs. Only an idiot would see a sign at the entrance of an underwater cave, with a picture of the grim reaper on it, and the title "prevent your death" and swim on in without reading it. What the CNN journalist should have said was, "Not every single diver heeds the warning, so we have this tragedy."
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It is purely a private sector expression/form of self-regulation/organization to responsibly increase cave diving safety and protect the caves and the environment (which will also protect the business which has developed around cave diving).
How is the private sector supposed to exert its rules on public land?
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Somebody has put lines in the caves and is profiting from that same cave and built a business around it.
HIGHwing gave the "price list."
You turn a recreational activity into a money making business (with advertisements attracting customers), in addition to cleaning up the mess (IUCRR...), you need to show some compassion, self-restraint, and some form of effective self-regulation (i.e. "common sense").
I think it's clear that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of this dive site. There is no business controlling it or making money directly from it. It is on public land owned by the state of Florida. It is a wilderness reserve that streches for miles in all directions and it is mostly used by the public for hunting. The cave diving industry in Florida isn't tied to this one cave, or a few dozen caves. It is thousands of caves spread out over hundreds of miles. Nobody is getting rich in the Florida cave diving industry. Therefore, the private sector doesn't have the resources to police the thousands of caves in the state. The public sector's solution is generally limited to "open at you own risk" or "closed". There are rules and regulations imposed to various degrees at many of our dive sites both public and privately owned. Some of those regulations are much more strict and thorough than what you are suggesting. Even at those sites, people have found ways to dive beyond their abilities and deaths have occurred.
Out of curiosity, is the system you are suggesting so effective that there has never been a cave diving death in your country?
