In Reply to: Who is responsable? Not me. posted by Captain Tim Burke on October 23, 2006 at 21:40:52:

This is nothing new, it only gets replayed every so often. In the 1980s, I "worked" for passage for a shop that insisted that we visually verify the presence of everyone on board before the boat moved. This worked fine until it inconvenienced a few if the shop owner's better customers who believed they were under no obligation to respond to a roll call and got very upset when asked to do so. We were told not to be so "zealous" in doing our job. At the same time, shop or freelance dm's were being marginalized by boat operators and other dive shops on split charters. After working boats for fours years, I gave it up. No or low pay, shops and certification agencies that believe that d.m.s were another specialty to sell on the way to becoming an instructor, I won't bore you with the list. I have not been on a cattle boat in a number of years but still am a very active diver. Has much changed?