I need your opinion

[MrChen]

Are you sure?

We have had discussions on this in the past, and knowledgeable people have said that they have to be paid a base rate, and that rate is defined by law. Any tips are above that base rate. After one such heated discussion, the South Florida operator I was using changed the captain's spiel to say the DM works "mostly" for tips, or "tips are a big part of the income." The dive operator I have been using the last couple of years says about the same thing.

None of that matters. Any person acting in that role has a basic duty of care. A few years ago there was a South Florida incident in which a diver had a medical event on the surface, and the crew failed to save him because they did not use standard man overboard procedures. The captain/owner was preparing the fish tacos for the post dive snack when it happened. The coast guard came down hard on her for not being present during those operations and for failure to train the crew to respond properly to the diver in distress.

I'll be honest, I have no firsthand knowledge. On the boat, the Capt will say the crew works for gratuity only, but that could just be a ruse to open our wallets. It seems like a lot of hard work to only make few hundred bucks on a day. So, you're probably right. If you had 16 people on a boat tipping $20 each, that's only $320. Most dive ops in Jupiter and WPB have two on deck, so that would only be $160 for 6+ hours of work, which is about ~$25 an hour. And that's IF the boat is full or can hold that many divers.

 

[Biotech Diver]

The Buddy got her cert in that week in Koh Samui. With the same company who organised the dives

Sounds like she needs more time in the pool. Good job rescuing her. Next time she may not be so lucky.

 

[Biotech Diver]

Not all dives are done in the USA.

 

[Belzelbub]

I agree with this completely, but I also believe it is part of a DM's job to do what can be done in case of an emergency.

Totally agree. From a DM perspective, he or she should be expected to keep the divers under their care safe, and respond if needed. From the diver’s perspective the responsibility is on the diver. The dive should be done such that rescue is not needed. Obviously, there are still situations where rescue may be required, then we hope that the buddy or DM will be able to help.

Back to the original scenario. OP, did you ask the DM why they didn’t intervene? I can see a couple of reasonable answers to that question.

1. The DM didn’t notice. That’s most likely a failure on the DM’s part.
2. The DM did notice and chose not to intervene as the OP had things under control. That might be an appropriate response assuming the DM was watching closely. I would still expect that the DM would be there and confirm that both are OK.