How many divers never come back?

[Mike]

I do know I have seen a tourist first hand die on a scooter.

Apparently the scooters are so dangerous, even sitting on one might give you prostrate cancer.

 

[PatW]

Diver deaths are pretty rare. They are also considered noteworthy because diving is regarded as intrinsically hazardous. So if a diver dies any where for any reason, it is widely reported. That level of reporting tends to cause people to over estimate the risk.



At Cozumel, like most places, the boat captains work together. If they miss a diver, they get on the radio and let the other captains know. This last winter, my wife and I popped up a bit off the estimated track. We asked a nearby captain to call our boat captain, which he did. The boat came right over and picked us up. On another day, a tourist was riding a jet ski at very high speed through the diver area. Our boat captain chased him off. I would think that if you get to the surface ok, your chances of being picked up at Cozumel are probably close to 100 percent.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I was thinking about this the other day. There are thousands of divers who descend on Cozumel every year. How many of them perish or disappear diving? Are there any stats out there? Let's just say from the last decade. I think diving is relatively safe, but anything can happen. There might be less deaths from diving than from auto accidents on the island in the same decade study.

I clicked on this thread thinking, from the title, that you were asking how many divers choose not go home. You know, drop out of life and "go bamboo" as they say.

I'm curious why this question is specific to Cozumel. Do you have reason to believe more divers die in Cozumel than in other diving destinations?

 

[DjDiverDan]

"In Cozumel, the #1 cause of tourist death -- by an overwhelming margin compared to other causes -- is vehicle accident."

The last time I bothered to look at the statistics, which was more than a decade ago, Cozumel was sending 12-15 Tourists home in body bags every year from Moped Accidents; that is ONLY Mopeds, and does not count Bicycles, cars or other vehicles, and does not count serious injuries which were survived. Meanwhile, over the course of a decade ending in 2000, diver fatalities averaged less than 1 a year, and that counts all diver fatalities, including heart attacks while underwater and "stupid" dives, like trying to go to 300 feet on air. I never looked at a comparison of # of tourist Moped rentals per day vs. # of tourist dives per day, but I would hazard a guess that a lot more people go diving every day than rent a moped.

 

[robint]

I clicked on this thread thinking, from the title, that you were asking how many divers choose not go home. You know, drop out of life and "go bamboo" as they say.

I'm curious why this question is specific to Cozumel. Do you have reason to believe more divers die in Cozumel than in other diving destinations?

I think you just have to look at the OP chosen name, and you can figure out why he is trying to stir up something regarding Cozumel diving.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I think you just have to look at the OP chosen name, and you can figure out why he is trying to stir up something regarding Cozumel diving.

Ah, I just figured Robb was a small alligator with poor spelling.

 

[mstevens]

prostrate cancer.

Is that some sort of positional malignancy?

---------- Post added August 12th, 2013 at 04:07 PM ----------

... Moped ... Mopeds ... Moped ... moped

I can honestly say I've never seen an actual moped on the island, and I've been keeping any eye out.

 

[chrpai]

I wonder how many get sent back in a body bag after being dropped off from a cruise ship? The last one I went on I woke up expecting to be at sea but we were on Cozumel. Some dude had a cardiac and needed to be dropped off.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

I don't have any specific numbers but when it does happen the locals know about it. My guess is that there are 2-4 dead divers per year, with lots more bent. To address another thread at this same time I have not seen or heard of ANY shark attack on a living person since I came here in 1992. There have been several cases where bodies have been found with shark bites after being in the water over night...but not one where the cause of death was proven as shark attack. I'd bet that if you died in a vacant lot in Cozumel the dogs might be chewing on your body over night.

On the other hand, on rare occasions, I have seen Lemon Sharks, Bull Sharks, and on one occasion each a Great Hammerhead and a Tiger.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[robbcayman]

I think you just have to look at the OP chosen name, and you can figure out why he is trying to stir up something regarding Cozumel diving.

LOL.. never assume anything. I have never even been to the Cayman Islands. In fact, I have been to Cozumel like a million times and it's my favorite destination. I use this screen name, because years ago Michael Vick was using an alias to pick up meds for his STD issues. He used the alias Ron Mexico. There is/was a website where you enter your real name and it gives you your Ron Mexico name and it generated the name Robb Cayman for me.

---------- Post added August 12th, 2013 at 04:59 PM ----------

Diver deaths are pretty rare. They are also considered noteworthy because diving is regarded as intrinsically hazardous. So if a diver dies any where for any reason, it is widely reported. That level of reporting tends to cause people to over estimate the risk.

This is the direction I was headed. Seriously, a bunch of my friends that are non-divers think it's just too risky. I was looking for actual numbers to back up my hunch. I would bet more tourists are killed in auto accidents in Cozumel than scuba diving. As many people have mentioned, some divers do dumb stuff i.e. go to 300 feet on air etc.. and some have true medical complications i.e. heart attack and they would have died in their hotel room, diving, driving etc. In short, I think people overestimate the risk of diving. Just my 2 cents.

---------- Post added August 12th, 2013 at 05:02 PM ----------

I don't have any specific numbers but when it does happen the locals know about it. My guess is that there are 2-4 dead divers per year, with lots more bent. To address another thread at this same time I have not seen or heard of ANY shark attack on a living person since I came here in 1992. There have been several cases where bodies have been found with shark bites after being in the water over night...but not one where the cause of death was proven as shark attack. I'd bet that if you died in a vacant lot in Cozumel the dogs might be chewing on your body over night.

On the other hand, on rare occasions, I have seen Lemon Sharks, Bull Sharks, and on one occasion each a Great Hammerhead and a Tiger.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

Out of curiosity where did you see the Tiger at?