September 7, 2007
Shark Activity Protocol
UC Santa Cruz' Diving Control Board has announced it's OK to resume diving in the Monterey and Pacific Grove areas after just one day of prohibiton. However, they advise that divers not work in areas for at least a week after the last reported shark activity. Admitting that great whites are often present in these waters, and one of the hazards of working here, they have come up with the following protocol in case you ARE diving in a suspect area:
Shark Activity Protocol
- All dive plans must be pre-approved by the DSO prior to departure - this can be done by email or verbally. You will need to provide days and location of operations, members of team, shore contact and planned operations.
- All divers, boat operators and shore contacts need to be made aware of the inherent hazards associated with the operation during times of shark activity and be especially attentive to surroundings during the operations. Shore contacts need to be able to be contacted at anytime during the hours of operations, no exceptions. All vessels need to have at least two means of communicating with the shore contact.
- All boat operations need to have a person on the boat at all times that can render immediate aid (bringing an injured diver into the boat and providing first aid) and be able operate all aspects of the vessel. An efficient method of coming aboard the vessel in an emergency needs to be discussed prior to departure. A first aid kit needs to be aboard the vessel. Diver recall strategies also need to be discussed.
- Surface swimming should be minimized, know compass headings back to the anchor line and as a backup, to shore. If the situation dictates a direct ascent to the surface, do not make a safety stop but do ascend as slow as you can but as fast as you need to with your buddy. Be prepared to enter the vessel as quickly as possible, ditching BC and weight belt if necessary.
- Buddy teams need to stay within touching distance at all times, especially on the surface. This "safety in numbers" statistically proves to be effective when reviewing shark attacks on SCUBA divers.
- Upon arrival at your work site, if there is evidence of shark activity you must cancel the dive and notify your shore contact and DSP office of your findings ASAP.
- Each diver needs to assess the risk of each dive and make their own decision as to their ability to safely complete the assigned dive. Any diver may refuse to make a dive, even if their decision will lead to the cancellation of the day's activities.
- Divers swimming through the water column from point 'A' to point 'B' should have at least one "safety sausage" for each buddy team. If you cannot continue your swim due to a shark sighting, deploy the float to let the boat driver know you need to be picked up. Do not ascend
until the boat is overhead and you deem it safe to do so.- Boat anchoring systems should be set-up so that in an emergency the entire anchor rode can be thrown overboard or the anchor line can be cut very quickly so as not to delay a response to an emergency.
- All anchoring should be done well within a kelp bed and not out in open water.
- A signalling protocol should be established so that divers know if the boat is dealing with an emergency and what they should do - come back to the boat underwater if it is safe or stay where you are and deploy your float, the boat is coming to pick you up.
Posted by Dida at September 7, 2007 5:41 PM
