Galapagos Scuba Diving Fatality - February 12, 2010 - Eloise Gale

[Web Monkey]

The Galapagos is not on my bucket list.

It's terribly, terribly sad to hear of someone dying this way.

I absolutely agree. Just because a dive op will "let" someone go on a dive doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Terry

 

[Web Monkey]

Nevertheless, one cannot merely ethically discard liability in the face of loss of life. What in fact would people suggest that the dive master's responsibility is, if any?

My vote for the "Safest DM action" would be for him/her to stay on the boat.

How many of these people would have had the nerve to grab a buddy and jump in if the DM wasn't in the water? I'm guessing "not many".

I know I wouldn't have.

Terry

 

[DandyDon]

I don't know that I'd call it "ambulance chasing" but it is certainly publish on an attorney's legal site so it does have a tone of him beating some sort of drum. It's linked or posted several legal sites, if you search for the deceased by name.

I'm not if this is legal, I'm hoping it's not. What people write is their property and I would think the entire content simply cannot be legally copied.

I think Pete says that SB does not play copyright police or words similar to that, that copyrighted property of others will be removed at the owners request, which is not likely I don't think. I see no harm done here. We copy news articles to post here all the time; same thing. A link would have worked, but having the copy is best - especially for when links stop working in time.

As far as the possible cause, so others can learn how to avoid similar accidents: (1) It does sound a lot like panic, as other have mentioned. We don't know the experience level or recent diver history of the deceased do we? (2) Perhaps aggravated by buddy separation? It sounded like her buddy was ahead of the couple, and she was behind when lost. Staying with one's buddy is generally so very important, and I think this is yet another example of how important. At least I think her chances could have been better if the two had been together. Others thots along those lines...?

 

[InTheDrink]

As a comparison note only, I was in Cocos last November. Diving conditions, from what I hear, are similar to the Galapagos (being only down the road).

Without any criticism whatsoever, some observations of some dives:

Dive #1.
Insane surge, pulling everything everywhere. I jammed myself between rocks protecting me from pulls in both directions. Other divers that only protected themselves in one direction from the surge were flipped over like pancakes. It was comical except when a diver's tank became detached from his BC (the least experienced diver in our group by coincidence). It was handled easily but it could have turned out worse.

General dive guidelines on our boat
#1 No deco diving
#2 No solo diving

I know now why these are stated. Because they nearly always happen.

I ended up several times in the 30-40m range, no visual reference to any other divers for extended periods of time, 10+ mins deco obligation, with hammerheads and some big Galapagos sharks hanging about. It's not hard to see how things can go wrong.

The conditions when I was there were pretty benign on most sites. I know this because the surface buoy on Alcyone was visible. In normal conditions the currents pulls it down a few feet below the surface so it's not visible.

I wouldn't make any snap judgements about this poor girl. Conditions in this region can be harsh and it would not take much for someone to get a knock on the head, for example, that could be the difference from an exhillerating dive and disaster.

I would however back the push to ensure that divers on liveabords in potentially challenging conditions are appropriately vetted. I've only started doing this kind of diving in the last few years and on pretty much every boat there were one or more divers so clearly inexperienced for the dives at hand that disaster was invited even if it didn't join for dinner that night. And this is from a pretty inexperienced diver myself.

J

 

[darkstar]

I spent a week with John and Kimberly on the Belize Aggressor in December. They are fine people and safe divers. John is not an ambulance chaser. He has a point of view, and I can honestly tell you that he passionate about his profession. In three trips on live-aboards, I have never met a poor person amongst the guests and don't see how John's profession or intellect make him anything other than a very good observer and witness. I'd love to see Bubbletrouble call John a ambulance chaser to his face. I'd bring popcorn and beer to watch that conversation.

Some of Johns observations are no doubt flavored by his experience on the Belize Aggressor. The Belize crew were VERY attentive to safety, and gave the most detailed pre-dive briefings of any boat I've ever been on. It would be pretty hard to follow that show.

Personally, I've always been in the divers are responsible for their own safety camp, but I do think that a dive operator should warn people about the dive conditions and the minimum standards that divers should meet. I looked at both the Peter Hughes and Aggressor web sites and neither of these talk about the minimum dive skills required for each location. Locations like Galapagos require skills that the average diver is just not going to get by logging even hundreds of dives in the Caribbean or the local quarry. People should know that long before they step on the boat.

I also think that it is insane to show up in a place like the Galapagos without a dive buddy that you have trained with. It's like gambling with your life.

 

[scubafanatic]

I was bothered by the author's language regarding the check-out dive. Experienced, well-trained divers shouldn't be "struggling" to determine weighting requirements even considering that completely novel gear (thick wetsuit, hoods, etc.) is being used. Doing a proper weight check is a basic OW skill. With experience and each gear change, I think a diver should be getting ample practice with conducting weight checks. If this isn't the case, then perhaps more/better training is indicated.

......I was flabbergasted at that statement too! "struggling" to figure out their weighting ??? ....and showing up to dive the Galapagos ??? WTF ??? !!!

If I were the boat crew/DM's and saw a Galapagos diver "struggling" to figure out their weighting/bouyancy requirements, I'd immediately ... BENCH .... those divers...we're talking lost cause here, any diver that incompetent should never have even showed their face on the boat, completely selfish and irresponsible....risking their lives and possibly the lives of other divers too!

 

[scubafanatic]

I would however back the push to ensure that divers on liveabords in potentially challenging conditions are appropriately vetted. I've only started doing this kind of diving in the last few years and on pretty much every boat there were one or more divers so clearly inexperienced for the dives at hand that disaster was invited even if it didn't join for dinner that night. And this is from a pretty inexperienced diver myself.

...umm, the boat's 20 ft for 20 min check out dive ain't exactly what I'd consider an appropriate 'check out' dive for THE GALAPAGOS !!! So I wholeheartedly agree with ya here!

 

[DandyDon]

I was guessing that some of the divers were wearing heavier wet suits than ever before, perhaps purchased or rented for that trip - so the weight challenges were not so surprising. I never have a problem, but I dive a 7 mil often enough.

 

[scubafanatic]

I was guessing that some of the divers were wearing heavier wet suits than ever before, perhaps purchased or rented for that trip - so the weight challenges were not so surprising. I never have a problem, but I dive a 7 mil often enough.

...well, I consider it to be irresponsible/extremely poor judgement to show up in almost a 'combat situation' and not have your act together......it's not too much to ask divers to at least hit the pool before the trip and debug gear/weighting, ESPECIALLY if you're gonna be using new toyz!

 

[skynscuba]

......I was flabbergasted at that statement too! "struggling" to figure out their weighting ??? ....and showing up to dive the Galapagos ??? WTF ??? !!!

I expect that we may be reading more into the word "struggling" than was actually meant by the blog author.