jerbee
Contributor
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- I'm a Fish!
For some reason it doesn’t seem like this has hit the news yet, but on the 1st a Chinese diver diving with Dawei dive shop in Sabang went missing on a dive in the Canyons off Sabang Beach. My understanding is he’s pretty experienced, fit, about 50, has been to Sabang yearly for the last 6 years, knew the sites, and did UW photography. The dive shop was irresponsible when it came to that dive, though, letting him go to the Canyons (which has a pretty strong current most of the time) during an ebbing tide on a new moon... the tide went from 2.5 feet to -0.4 feet, and the best guess is he was blown out from the site and perhaps had a medical issue... in any event, this should serve as a cautionary story that even if you’re an advanced diver and know the area, you still have to be aware of conditions at the site, including tides if those could be a factor. Helicopters are still scouring the area but after 3 days it’s gone from a “search and rescue” to just a “search”. It’s a shame, and I’m sorry to hear about this happening, and really wish certain dive shops would be a bit more proactive in their approach towards ensuring diver safety. Some things can’t be planned for, but this was completely preventable - the shop I’m at cancelled the dives to the Canyons that same day due to the tide tables, so it wasn’t something “out of the blue” that would have caught someone who was prepared unaware. Best wishes to his family and I hope that they find him, even if he’s passed away (which is likely after so long) so the family can have some closure.