Public Safety Diving: Keeping divers safe in manmade fish habitats

摘要

It's a calm, cool spring Indiana night on a 3,200-acre lake during the 35th annual midnight fishing tournament when a report comes in that a contestant has fallen out of his boat halfway across the lake and has not resurfaced. The lake manager calls 911 and the dive team responds. It's 2:00 a.m. As the units get to the last known location in rescue mode, they deploy the tethered primary diver and start the boat-based dive. Ten minutes into the dive and working in zero visibility at 65 feet, the primary diver calls to the tender: 'I am entangled, I cannot see, and I'm unable to move.' The tethered backup diver is immediately deployed to assist. Suddenly, the backup diver calls to the tender with a panicked voice: 'My line is snagged and I cannot move!' Two divers are now rendered helpless and time is ticking on the air left in the 80-cubic-foot cylinders they are using. They are both entangled in manmade fish habitats. What's your public safety diving (PSD) teams next move in this situation?