Posted by Eric Sedletzky on August 10, 2000 at 23:07:02:
I was reading all of the thread below about the Yukon, and have a few questions.
1. Who owns the Yukon
2. Are private boats allowed on the wreck.
3. If there were to be skill requirements to dive the wreck, who would volunteer to be the scuba cop?
4. If you were able to catch unqualified people diving the wreck and they actually made it out alive, what would be the punishment. Under what section could you place them under citizens arrest?
5. Are there even any laws against divers doing things their not supposed to? ( Lets say you catch a person scuba diving without a c-card. Could they be cited under any law?)
Some of the suggestions you made regarding "self policing before the government steps in" can't really be enforced. If you are diving the Yukon and see an absolute moron penetrating the wreck that you can prove is grossly underqualified, I'm sorry to say, without actual laws in place by legislation, you have no right to say a word. If you do, then you are stepping on someone else's rights. Charter Boats can have all the rules they want, but if the Yukon is open to the pubic with their own boats, then guess it's no longer a private party.
As this sport becomes more and more popular, I hate to say it but they probably will begin legislation to adopt rules and laws. Look at bungee jumping. They arrest you because it is illegal to jump off "their" bridge. Well they can just as easily bend the rules and somehow make it illegal to be in certain areas of "their" ocean.
Personally for myself, I would not dream of doing any wreck, cave, or OE diving
without proper training. I am responsible enough to know that if a crisis situation were to uccur, I could pose an extreme hazard to myself, my buddy, rescuers, and other people diving in close proximity. I think causing someone to be permanently mentally damaged by dragging my soggy corpse out of the water is a bit silly.
Oh, by the way, we are still very interested in the DIR demos.
I have talked to many people and we all agree that this is something we would like to know more about.
Later dewd...