Posted by lucky diver on April 13, 2004 at 08:33:33:
Was hoping someone could help me on this. Had the kids out scuba diving and snorkeling at the channel islands. Park service boat comes zooming up to inspect (with twin props spinning, of course). The first thing they ask is whether we have divers in the water. If they didn't know, they should not have come zooming up. We had a prominently displayed diver down flag. They explained that they were checking fishing licences, etc.
I doubt that they could explain away a couple of dead kids if they had hit anyone. I am wondering who to file a complaint with. Either they should get shrouded props or a jet drive. They should also excercise extreme caution when approaching a boat conducting dive operations.
The total lack of enforcement of dive flag violations by boaters is one thing, but having the park service boat actually participating is another.
Of course, everyone on board had appropriate licenses and so forth.