Hello Guys,
My friend got hooked by a trolled Rapala lure on his wetsuit arm. Lucky not his flesh and lucky the leader was mono and not cable, so he managed to cut it with his dive knife before sportfisherman reeled him in.
I had one close call in 2003. We were diving a very big Japanese wreck of at least 500 feet long. Water viz as usual is under 12 feet.
We had our dive boat a 53 footer yacht on the surface as support. We had floats on the surface to mark us divers.
While diving at the sandy bottom at approx 100 feet, we saw big ropes were dragged close by and passing us.
When we surfaced, the we learnt that after we descent, some minutes later a traditional fisherman boat set their nets. The dive boat captain have horned the fisherman, speak loud on the loudhailer .........block fisherman path with the 53 footer and still the traditional fisherman team set their nets. I know this fishermen ways of thinking, they think they own the sea.
So the rope we saw, was the rope from the net that got stuck on the wreck and was cut off by the sharp wreck. If we were on the top deck of the wreck, we could have been "netted".......
, we were near the bottom and that rope was a broken rope from the net ). The fisherman damaged their net bad and they nearly got us. This is about the closest encounter I have with any "fishing" incident while diving.
DANGERS NEAR THE SURFACE
Usually small fisherman boat will pass by our surface marker float like they want to get close to see what the hell is the float. They do not understand a diver down flag mind you. I had my sausage pulled by them fisherman a few times. Every time I do a safety stop, I will launch my surface marker from at least 20 meters and spend 3 minutes at 3 meters. If I don't pay attention to their propellers sound, I would have been hit by their props more than once during ascend to the surface. Indonesian fisherman is still very backwards is some area.
The only time I will do a quick descend to 12 meters while doing safety stop at 3 meters is, when I hear a heavy but low RPM rumble. That is a huge propeller turning slow and that must be a vessel with very deep draft. One wreck I like diving lies on a commercial vessel route where there is a power station receiving coal shipment and oil tankers frequent the area. It is 3 miles from shore but water depth is only 140 feet. I keep asking the dive boat to act as barrier but some very big vessels are difficult to maneuver and sometime we need to give way to them..........that's when my ears come to play. Hence I never like to dive even with the thinnest of hood. My UW hearing get impared by a hood. I really am scared when I hear the low RPM rumble. What if the draft of the vessel is more than 12 meters ??? Not likely for that area since there but there is a possibility.
Dive safe guys.......