Pearl diver dies in Broome

[Ragnorak]

Folks, I really think we should stop hypothesising on this and that and everything for now. We were not there and we don't know what happened. We are guessing from hearsay reports from an apparently spun TV show.

Like I've said you already seem to have made up your mind.

 

[Ragnorak]

I'm not an industrial expert, but the Australian Government takes a dim view of quasi contractors - e.g. if people are only contractors by name, but treated as employees (one main marker would be equipment being supplied (er, such as a boat!). So while you or I might like to regard a diver as a contractor, the authorities here could well differ and classify them as employees ... however, I don't know what the on-the-water sitch is for pearl divers, so they may well be fully "contractors".

The company obviously supplies the boat. Perhaps this can be considered akin to the worksite if you're a builder for example. Or the aircraft if we want to keep with the aviation industry analogy.

When I was in the water the company supplied the steel rings, netting and cord to make your own neck bag and big bag as well as the bail out bottles (small scuba style tanks that gave you about 10 minutes or so of air). Everything else was up to the diver to supply.

Duty of care provisions may well over-ride such distinctions in any case, I would think. It does sound like it, from the doco.

That's what I'm thinking too.

 

[Ragnorak]

My answers still remain the same. So here are my comments to your Facebook repost.

I am attaching a post from Facebook. The bolding is mine, which alludes to what I've been suggesting.


"Drift diving is a tough job.

It ceratainly is. But just because you are fit doesn't mean you have the strength, endurance or where with all to do the job over a 12 hour day.

The safe diving practices of today are a result of improvements made in the industry over the past 100+ years, particularly in the last 35- 40 years since the implementation of hookah drift diving.

The safe diving impovements in the current modern day industry with regards to diving have mainly occurred since 1990 when the death of 2 divers shocked the entire industry in WA.

To suggest that Paspaley does not care about their employees is incorrect, the company that my colleagues and I worked for is a compassionate and caring company that held the welfare of it workers as the highest priority.

The 4 Corners report has not suggested this. More that how did the situation arise that 5 out of the 8 divers on one boat had never drifted before.

Entering the water was never forced on any diver. Every day, every dive, you made a conscious decision that you were getting in the water with sharks, stingrays, irukandji, box jelly fish, cone shell, lion fish, dream fish and that was your work environment , the effects of repetitive diving also deserve a mention risking the bends,pulmonary barotrauma, inner ear barotrauma, sinus squeeze, salt water aspiration and chaffing.

Everyone gets in the water because the money was good. Very good. Or at least it used to be.

Why did we get in the water? Because we trusted the system that has been developed over the past 40 years without tragedy, to say this is dumb luck is absurd, the people I worked with were common sense professionals with respect for their job and their piers, with this, a diver must realize that there is an element in his or her job where they must take responsibility for their actions.

And if the trusted system fails you? What then?

There are times under the ocean where the only person who can save you is you. No matter what practices are implemented this will always be an element of drift diving.

The first sentence is very true. But if you've never been trained adequately or don't have the experience to save yourself. Then what?

It is impossible to understand the operations of a drift diving vessel without experiencing it first hand, the four corners program that was aired during the week will give you a small insight but fails to paint a complete picture.

I agree with that.

The vessel must maintain forward momentum during the drift and while the divers are decompressing to avoid the air hoses and work lines being sucked into the propeller, the propeller does not cut hoses it winds them up, divers are connected to air hoses.

As I've already meantioned. That's why most in the industry attached their hoses to their weight belts. Because you can get it off easily if the above situation happens.

The worst days for the above indecent occurring are usually neap day and the days either side of it. The tide is at it's slackest then and not moving much or at all. In which case the skipper usually has the boat in idle to maintain forward momentum and the drogue (sea ancher) at full extension.

On days when the tide is enough to keep the boat moving then it's usually the drogue that controls the speed. On the boat I worked on it basically looked like a big modern day parachute trailing behind the boat.

This is one area where I disagree with the report. Because on the second day of a neap the tide is still what is keeping the boat moving. You do not want to feed the drogue out too fast. Just steady so it has time to take effect before you let more out. Obviously feeding it out too fast may have it go completly underwater or in an extreme case folding up on itself. Which would negate any slowing effect it has.

So it can be difficult slowing a boat quickly to such a speed where it would make it easy for someone on the surface to effect a rescue.

generally it is not hard to hold onto your work line while drifting, divers are extremely fit and strong and you would never harness yourself to it for obvious reasons.

Extremely strong and fit is a bit of an exageration. Alot of people used to use upstream regulators that pumped huge amounts of air into your lungs.

the deckhand is the spare diver,he cannot enter the water without a wetsuit due to the stingers,

As long as you are covered up then it shouldn't be a problem. During the warmer weather we used to dive in track pants and a sweat shirt.

to have him/her in full kit on deck in 35 degree heat and humidity is not safe work practice in itself.

It's more impractical considering it's work from sun up until sun down.

Divers do sometimes let go of their work line if they come across a patch of shell and it is possible to pull yourself up the air hose and find your work line.

I can say I've deliberately let go of my workline for the same reason. And as I've mentioned in this thread I have used the same method to find my line again.

If a divers big bag is to heavy to swim to the inside line or the visibility is bad the diver can parachute it up the shot line this is a common sense decision made by the diver."

And having a swim line from the outer shot weight to the ladder makes betting your big bag to the winch line that much easier. Besides you're dragging youself along something that is attached to the boat.

On dives when we have needed to stage I've on occassions swum my workline over to the diver on the outside of me. Or he's come and found me and asked me for my line to take back with him while he gets his big bag.

 

[Caitlin]

Moderator Mode:

It's pretty bad form to post PMs without clearance

It is not allowed, at all. It will be taken down at the least.

I think this thread has become some kind of verbal bocce ball with someone who also has a very strong opinion. Just about everything has been said at least once. No need to repeat anything more. Unless you have something new to say, I think this topic has been thoroughly explored. At this point the comments are getting very repetitive and circular.

 

[Ragnorak]

I think this thread has become some kind of verbal bocce ball with someone who also has a very strong opinion. Just about everything has been said at least once. No need to repeat anything more. Unless you have something new to say, I think this topic has been thoroughly explored. At this point the comments are getting very repetitive and circular.

Considering you've formed an opinion and then changed it based on the opinions of one poster and your own mis-conceptions, then I find it a bit disconcerting that it seems I'm being told not to counter those opinions. Even if I find those opinions to be contrary to my own.

Once apon a time I too would have said it was the individual's fault. But if what is reported is true then I feel there has been a serious breach in the duty of care of the employer towards the employee.

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

I will post one last time, permanently.

This is a forum to discuss "Pearling Industry News". Although the threads were merged, Mary posted a link and a rather inflammatory subtitle.

"Paspaley diver's death raising safety questions. Australian Broadcasting Corporation investigation into the death of a young Paspaley diver. It looks as though their safety standards do not befit a wealthy country..."

I am a diver, and a pearler and take exception to that statement and the content of the link.

I appreciate the contribution from a former diver, that I might better understand the inner workings of drift diving. While we have some points of contention, I do feel our discussion has been civil and matter of fact, unlike tens of thousands of people standing on their moral outrage and know nothing about diving or pearling at all.

This was a story aired on national television by an investigative journalistic team. Yet somehow they and others who watched it, frame the issue as above criticism, lest that person be deemed insensitive, biased or indifferent. I am neither. I speak my peace in no uncertain terms. I'm human, make mistakes and can be naively misleading from time to time, but strive to find common ground and the truth.

Be well my friends.

 

[Caitlin]

I just think posters need to discuss something that hasn't been discussed as we are rehashing at this point.

Just say something new.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, knowledgeable about the details of drift diving, or not. Without being told they are wrong on a line by line basis.
It is better when people all express their own opinion or POV.

You don't do that, you just react to what others are saying. You could have made your own argument, in a post without quotes from others - that is the best way to do it. That lets the less knowledgeable people, including me, ask you questions, instead of being taken apart, line by line.

Just say something new, without hashing others' opinions over your grill.

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

http://www.theguardian.com/australi...-failings-over-death-of-pearl-diver-in-broome

Paspaley was charged and fined with breaching the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984 for failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment. The maximum fine is $200,000, but Paspaley was found not responsible for the death. Other divers working under the same conditions that day (and for years previously) had carried out their tasks and returned safely to the surface. The casualty having been known to be "qualified and experienced" and a "physically fit" diver failed to perform as expected under the circumstances.

Paspaley voluntarily complied with all recommended upgrades in equipment, training and operations immediately following the incident and were not ordered to take further action subsequent to the hearings.

There was considerable discussion about defibrillators, but these were deemed highly dangerous, a hinderance to resuscitation and ineffective under the circumstances. First of all, using an electronically driven charged capacitor device on the sea water soaked decks of ships endangers everyone in the vicinity and does not adequately target the heart insomuch as going to ground through the wet diving suit. Secondly, to remove diving gear causes the loss of precious minutes and seconds, when instead CPR should be started immediately. And lastly, the diver did not die of heart. He died by drowning, then in the subsequent damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't hauling an unconscious diver off the bottom causes the residual gas volume in the lungs to expand causing gas embolism, mediastinal or subcutaneous emphysema (often all three). In those cases, even CPR causes greater internal injury and forces gas into the bloodstream. It's sad and harsh to say, but there was nothing to be done to save this diver after the fact.

Diver error, 100%. Period.