DAN News
Diver Strandings in the News: DAN Can Help
Last Updated: 4/22/2009 5:34:47 PM

News reports of five lost scuba divers recently have kept the world watching and waiting for news of their recovery. Thankfully, the divers, all Europeans, were found alive and only a little the worse for wear June 7, two days after their disappearance.

The group was swept away in swift currents while diving near Komodo National Park in Indonesia's Lesser Sunda Islands. The group drifted for hours — some reports have indicated nine hours, others 12 — before spotting land.

BBC reports said the divers were found on the southern coast of Rinca island, about 20 miles south of their dive site. They were exhausted, bruised and dehydrated but well — and happy to be found. They were transported to a medical center on nearby Flores island, where they received water. They reportedly had staved off hunger by eating oysters and other shellfish.

All’s well
A happy ending to a frightening story, but it’s not the first story of its kind.

In May, two scuba divers, a British man and an American woman, were rescued after spending 20 hours in the waters around Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

The 2004 movie Open Water began the recent concentration of coverage — and subsequent awareness — of diver strandings. Loosely paralleling the stranding and disappearance of Americans Tom and Eileen Lonergan in the waters off Queensland, Australia, in 1998, the movie catapulted the topic into public discussion.

Why do strandings happen?
Despite its happy ending, many people and organizations are working together to trace the sequence of events in this latest incident and offer safeguards to prevent such mishaps in the future.

DAN® is one of those entities.

It’s a fact: Despite the best-laid plans, circumstances can go awry. Divers have surfaced to find their boat has left them behind. In addition, divers can get swept away by currents and surface downstream from their personal boats. Or perhaps divers didn’t leave anyone on their boats, or lost anchor or broke a mooring again without anyone on board.

The low numbers of incidents, however, don’t diminish the fear — and dangers — of being stranded. But there are safeguards.

Use these precautions

• Make sure you’re noticed. Don’t be shy: Introduce yourself to everyone you’ll be diving with. That way, you’ll recognize one another, and there’s less chance of being missed.

• Be redundant. Recreational divers can take a tip from technical divers (e.g., deep divers, cave divers) and use redundant systems. That means if one device fails, they'll have a backup. Divers, take note of dive conditions and carry at least two of these emergency signaling devices:

  Surface marker buoys, so-called “safety sausages." Use these bright-colored plastic tubes that, once inflated, can be seen at great distances.

  Dive whistles, an audible notification that you want attention. Good if you’re out of air in your buoyancy compensation device, they are powered by your lungs. Keep that in mind, though, if you think you’ll be in swells and surge.

  Air horns. Like the whistle, it’s an audible warning. This one, however, is powered by the air in your buoyancy compensation device. Because the blast comes from a greater pressure than your lungs can provide, the sound can carry over a longer distance.

  Flares. A good backup for your surface marker buoy or air horn, keep in mind these lighting devices can be subject to malfunction when wet as well as a short firing range.

  Mirrors. As with flares, mirrors are good backup devices. They are more easily spotted by boats in calm waters.

  Emergency radio beacons, called EPIRBs for Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, are tracking transmitters that interface with the international satellite system for search and rescue. Once viewed as fairly technical, these devices are being used more often by divers in remote locales.

• Accounting, anyone? Dive operations should use at least two means of accounting for their divers. “We hope that the DAN Diver IDentification System will be one of these means of keeping track,” said Dan Orr, DAN President and CEO. “It’s free, created as part of our mission and is supported both by DAN and member donations.”

Other methods include head counts and roll calls.

Dive with care
Scuba diving, as other sports, is not risk-free, but it is a relatively safe sport. Since its founding in 1980, DAN has advocated safe practices to minimize risks. This is especially critical for those divers who like to challenge the limits of diving, whether it’s diving deep, exploring caves and wrecks or chasing an elusive creature for a perfect underwater photo.

For divers, real-life knowledge, which evolves from training and preparation, is the best safety factor. Keep up with your skills, and practice as often as you can. Approach all dives with caution but also with the joy of anticipation.

And when you have questions, DAN is here for you.

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DAN Products Can Help You Get Noticed

DIDS Board
Developed by DAN to help dive operators with a physical accounting of divers, it’s a board-and-tag system called the DAN Diver Identification System. One of its most appealing aspects is that it is free.

At the beginning of each dive trip, the divemaster assigns each diver an individually numbered DAN DIDS tag. When divers are on the boat, they keep their individual tags on the DIDS board. But before diving, divers remove their tags from the board and clip them to their buoyancy compensation devices (dive vest). The tag number also corresponds to the divemaster’s roster number.

When returning to the boat, divers remove their tags and return them to the board; the divemaster then checks the DAN DIDS board for missing tags. Bottom line: The boat does not leave the dive site until all the tags are replaced on the board and all divers are accounted for.

For more information, click here, or call DAN at +1-919-684-2948, ext. 295

Surface Signal Kit: 3 devices in one
This kit includes:

• surface marker buoy;
• storm whistle; and
• signal mirror.

For more information, go to the DAN Product Catalog here, or call DAN at +1-919-684-2948 and press 3. <

Additional Resources:
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