From: craig@cattnts (Craig Campbell)
Subject: Re: dive flags & boaters
Organization: AT&T / NCR Canada Ltd., Toronto, Canada
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 13:36:46 GMT

In article <1992Apr3.112914.23343@mailer.cc.fsu.edu> mayne@cs.fsu.edu writes:
>In article <2APR199213090362@zeus.tamu.edu> bdd0066@zeus.tamu.edu (Bryan, kick the tire and light the fire, Duke) writes:

Story of powerboat cruising by dive flag omitted...

>>  For me, that was just a little
>>too close for comfort, but he should have never been there.  my flag
>>was very plain to see.  so why didn't he stay away??

>Most likely he didn't have any idea what a dive flag meant. Quite a few
>boaters don't. That doesn't make them idiots.

Not idiots, no....but if a automobile driver ran over a pedestrian at a
cross walk, how much strength would you give the argument that the driver
probably didn't know what the X meant.  Think about it.

>I can understand being frightened and angry after an experience like
>that, but I must disagree with the "all boaters are idiots" attitude
>shown in some articles in rec.scuba. The most flagrant was someone
>else's, not yours. Since I don't want to attack any individual perhaps
>it is best that I put my comments in a response without a specific
>reference.

All boaters are not idiots.  (I am a boater and a scuba diver, so I can see
both sides.)  However, operating a boat does require a certain specialized
skill set, including how to read common (not all) nautical markers.  I would
define a dive flag as a common nautical marker.  Is ignorance a valid excuse?

>Most boaters don't know about diving and divers, and this can produce
>dangerous situations. As divers there really isn't much we can do to
>change boaters. We have to learn to protect ourselves. It shouldn't
>be that way, but it is.

How about some sort of information campagne (around cottage country) to
inform boaters (at least the ones who can read) of the meaning of a dive
flag?  (I know, who would pay for it.... :-( )

>Attacking boaters is not the solution. It isn't courteous, it isn't
>reasonable, and it won't help.

A public prosecution of a boater who ignored a dive flag and hit a diver
probably would help (everyone except the hit diver...).  The publicity
of a trial might do the trick.

>Boaters are much more numerous than divers and the boating industry has
>much more clout. If it comes to confrontation we'll lose. If we try to
>push for really tough regulation of boats by yelling too loudly about
>hazards to divers the result is more likely to be tough regulations on
>diving.

The boating industry (comercial) know all about divers and dive flags 
(along with a zillion other flag combinations).  The recreational industry
does not have the same clout.  Regulations don't mean anything.  The problem
as I see it is ignorance, not malice.  Nobody, boater or otherwise WANTS
to hit a diver!!

Net question:  "How can we (diving industry) inform the recreational boating
		industry about diving in a friendly and useful manner?"
		(How do we pay for it?)

>Bill Mayne


-- 
Craig Campbell		|	These opinions are entirely the result of a 
Systems Engineer	|	small butterfly crashing into the far side
NCR Canada,		|	of the planet.  Chaos Rules.
an AT&T Company		|	I speak for no one, except, possibly, myself.