bleeb
Contributor
I too greatly sympathize with the family and friends of the unfortunate victim. To help especially the non-divers among them understand what and why certain things may be happening, it may be worth mentioning some of the background issues searchers or potential searchers may be facing, at least as far as I understand them as a non-rescuer.
The risks to searchers, volunteer or professional, are non-zero. Expanding on some of the things Dive-aholic and others brought up, for depths much below 100' decompression stops during the ascent are probably a necessity for the dives to be long enough to be useful, and for depths below 130', pretty well mandatory. Many divers would only dive under the relatively harsh conditions found here with multiple team members on the bottom and additional support divers for the ascent and possibly descent. For non-industrial decompression diving, the chances of a serious accident are something like 1 dive in 5000-10000, and that's just for major accidents with potential life-long consequences. Also IIRC, in some recently published figures, the rate of serious accidents among professional search and rescue divers can be higher than that of firemen. So, for each day of searching where there may be three or four teams spending an hour each on the bottom (and then maybe another two or three coming back to the surface) there's possibly as high as one chance in six hundred of a searcher ending up in the hospital. The people willing to go out and do this consider these risks as acceptable, and it says good things about their honor and humanity that they're willing to take these risks for someone else. But at some point, the people overseeing the search also start asking themselves whether they're starting to push the odds. Obviously it's not a black or white situation though and everyone would like to bring some resolution to the family, but part of the balancing act is making the call on how much accumulated risk is acceptable.
As a side note, there was mention of local law enforcement continuing during future training exercises. These practice sessions cost both a lot of time and money, and involve a certain amount of risk. But since they have to train regularly (monthly or more frequently) to stay in practice, it's not all that uncommon for teams to continue searches as part of their training.
Another factor, possibly more of an issue for volunteer searchers, is the expense. For deep decompression dives, it's common for the breathing gas to cost $100-$200 per diver, per dive and a day of searching could easily start costing a group $1000 or more. And I don't mean to imply that the family or anyone else 'should' be reimbursing volunteers. Most of those stepping up to the plate consider it an acceptable donation on their part, but the rest of us should at least understand that it's not cost free for them. As another side note, it's also worth realizing that in many places, OSHA-type regulations are such that volunteers are not allowed to accept cash or services (like commercial lodgings) even for expenses.
The risks to searchers, volunteer or professional, are non-zero. Expanding on some of the things Dive-aholic and others brought up, for depths much below 100' decompression stops during the ascent are probably a necessity for the dives to be long enough to be useful, and for depths below 130', pretty well mandatory. Many divers would only dive under the relatively harsh conditions found here with multiple team members on the bottom and additional support divers for the ascent and possibly descent. For non-industrial decompression diving, the chances of a serious accident are something like 1 dive in 5000-10000, and that's just for major accidents with potential life-long consequences. Also IIRC, in some recently published figures, the rate of serious accidents among professional search and rescue divers can be higher than that of firemen. So, for each day of searching where there may be three or four teams spending an hour each on the bottom (and then maybe another two or three coming back to the surface) there's possibly as high as one chance in six hundred of a searcher ending up in the hospital. The people willing to go out and do this consider these risks as acceptable, and it says good things about their honor and humanity that they're willing to take these risks for someone else. But at some point, the people overseeing the search also start asking themselves whether they're starting to push the odds. Obviously it's not a black or white situation though and everyone would like to bring some resolution to the family, but part of the balancing act is making the call on how much accumulated risk is acceptable.
As a side note, there was mention of local law enforcement continuing during future training exercises. These practice sessions cost both a lot of time and money, and involve a certain amount of risk. But since they have to train regularly (monthly or more frequently) to stay in practice, it's not all that uncommon for teams to continue searches as part of their training.
Another factor, possibly more of an issue for volunteer searchers, is the expense. For deep decompression dives, it's common for the breathing gas to cost $100-$200 per diver, per dive and a day of searching could easily start costing a group $1000 or more. And I don't mean to imply that the family or anyone else 'should' be reimbursing volunteers. Most of those stepping up to the plate consider it an acceptable donation on their part, but the rest of us should at least understand that it's not cost free for them. As another side note, it's also worth realizing that in many places, OSHA-type regulations are such that volunteers are not allowed to accept cash or services (like commercial lodgings) even for expenses.
