Posted by MHK on August 03, 2000 at 18:10:35:
In Reply to: Re: ???????????? posted by SLANG on August 03, 2000 at 15:00:41:
Obviously we share a different view of the issues. But by extension of a few of your thougths:
*Do you really think that this ship would ever have gotten sunk if everyone involved thought it was only going to be for the enjoyment of that small percentage of the public that consider themselves technical divers? *
It was not intended to be for a small percentage of technical divers. But all did NOT go according to plan. 1/2 of the intended exit points are sitting in the sand. What was planned turned out much diiferently. Do you think if they said we are going to sink the wreck and close off 1/2 the exit points that we spent years opening up, it would have gotten approved????
Come on, I understand what position you are advocating but at some point you have to look at this and say people are going to get hurt.. Is it there right as you say, sure.
That same logic was once very prevelant in Florida and the cave systems were not gaurded. At Ginnie Springs gates are put in. If given your logic that it is the diver's right to kill themselves, does that extend to caves???? Should a diver not trained in cave diving be allowed to penetrate a cave???
If not, juxtapose the two.. How do you take the position that it is ok to penetrate one overhead environment and not another???
The *it's ok to kill yourself mentality* is short sided in my view. Absent the obvious loss of life you fail to recognize what else is involved. The DM retrieves the body will be scared for life ( trust me I know about that , the boat/shop get's a bad rep, lawsuits may get filed, families are involved and then of course if it happens too often, as was the case in Florida ( and as is now being threatned in NY ), sooner or later the Govt. will come in and place restrictions. I for one would rather us divers proactively self-police ourselves before we let some beauracrat take a shot at this.. Could you imagine what a governmental agency would require???
My recomendations are not over bearing, intrusive or unreasonable. But turning a blind eye on the other hand could certainly lead to trouble.
By way of analogy, at Ginnie Springs ( a cave in Florida ) they used to allow cavern certified diver's to penetrate the opening of the cave. But after several deaths they found out that diver's just don't peak there head in a few feet and turn around. Curiosity and allure bring them in, they're not trained properly, get disoriented and die. The same will/can hold true for untrained recreational diver's *just swiming around the outside *.. Gee, I'll just poke around and next thing you know they're lost and running out of time. See example that started this thread.
The depth of this wreck lends itself to shorter BT's. The average diver ( let's assume AL 80 for purposes of discussion )and let's assume air. Will have about 12 minute available BT. I have no tables or programs with me so I'm guessing about the 12 minutes. But give or take that's where we are.
Add a little narcosis, smaller lights, no reels and you can see it all adds up. Most acciddents aren't a result of just one thing going wrong, they generally are a result of an accumulation of several little things piling up..
By going against my suggestions an unproperly trained diver has the odds stacked against himself before he even get's in the water.
Why wait until there is a tradegy to act????
Later