ccr used for rescue/recovery missions.

mountain diver

looking for your thoughts and or views of the use of ccr for rescue/recovery
missions by your local coast guard agency.
or should this kind of task be left for contractors?
Are there agencies that use equipment other then surface supplied air?







all the best.

Allan_o

I would say it depends on the situation.

Could you be a bit more specific?


/Allan

mountain diver

in canada,west coast anyway's they use surface supplied air,for their divers.
this raises some questions about the their ability to provide a a proper rescue
should the need arise.case in point, have aread at this.hence the question I
earlier asked.

Diver missing at sunken ship site off Nanaimo




all the best.

Explorer

Remember when we were diving on the HMCS Saskatchewan with the RCMP dive team last October, they were a bit jealous with us diving with our rebreathers. Maybe soon one day. It would be a great tool for sure.

OceanOpportunity

Rebreather's have a time and place. I am a contract scientific/commercial diver fulltime, adn ahve done alot of search/recovery type diving. In general, my experience here is that the situation does not dictate RB's. The dives are generally short. When they are not short, they tend to be in poor conditions, so surface supplied makes sense since you have an unlimited gas supply and you have comms/tether.

More generally speaking, adn this is not a stab at anyone in particular, but in general I question the proficiency levels of public safety/Coast Guard divers.This is not an individuals fault, rather the system not providing funding/opportunities to keep folks up to snuff routinely. I'm of the opinion that Rebreather diving requires a higher level of proficiency than these other modes, which I dont think the system will accomodate. Need I remind us of the USCG incident in the Arctic last year???

Save the more technical stuff for us contractors.

__________________
Michael Lombardi | Oceans of Opportunity

Blog : a new life in the sea | a progressive & futurist outlook on ocean exploration

wedivebc

I would say that RBs are very well suited to search missions but maybe not recovery missions.

We found the body today:)

__________________
Cheers,

Dave....

www.wedivebc.com

RonMicjan

Funny you should ask about this...

Guys, some of you may know that a diver was lost on the Cape Breton last Saturday. Divers allowed back to wreck

Ken Adrian, the owner of Divers Choice Charters in Nanaimo, a friend of Daniel (the lost diver), spoke with the RCMP dive recovery team about allowing a team of cave trained CCR divers continue the search. The RCMP suspended their search late Thursday and the wreck was opened up to recreational divers. The team of Dave Tomblin, Aaron Lackie, Scott Ensor and myself, all using ISC Megalodon CCR's on a 20/20 trimix diluent, made two dives on Friday, the first with a run time of 90 minutes and average depth of 125 feet covered 95% of the area of the wreck aft of the engine room. It was determined from combining the eyewitness reports, the dive computer profile, a written description of the incident from the girlfriend and detailed construction plans of the wreck, that the lost diver couldn’t have made it past the 3 deck high continuous bulkhead that separates the aft section of the ship from the engine room, and so we concentrated our search in this area. After the first dive, we marked off all areas that had been searched by the two teams (of two) and looked at what might have been missed. We surmised that the two rooms forward of the “air lock”, which are cold storage rooms, had not be adequately covered and Scott and I were tasked to cover this area, as well as the storerooms directly below them. This area is 6” to over a foot deep in rust flakes and silt and was an extremely difficult area to maintain visibility in. The team agreed to run full cave protocol for all aspects of the search. Scott tied off the reel at the cut off area of the transom and we ventured into the bowels of the ship. At about minute 15 into the second dive, we reached the cold storage rooms and I waited in the air lock room while Scott explored first the starboard, then the port side rooms. The port side room ceiling had collapsed and getting into the room was like swimming into a lobster trap, with the sheet metal ceiling panels forming a funnel into the room. Scott found the diver about in the center of the room, vertically orientated with his head touching the deck. He made several wraps of line around the divers wrist and locked the line off. By this time the viz in the room had dropped to zero and Scott followed the guide line from the room and informed me of his discovery. We recalled the other two divers and made our ascent. It was agreed that once we located the diver, we would back off and let the RCMP dive team do the recovery, as they had protocols that needed to be followed.

We all made it back safely, which was the number one goal, all divers did their jobs and I for one am very proud of the team members.

We just returned from being debriefed by the RCMP Marine unit, what a great group of dedicated divers, we could all learn a bit from these guys.

Thanks to everyone involved, Ken and Carolyn Adrian of Divers Choice, Marilynn, the manager of The Dive Outfitters, Nanaimo BC, and of course the RCMP dive team.

__________________

Mixaddict

Ron,

Congratulations on a successful conclusion. These situations are always painful, but I'm sure the family members and friends will be forever grateful to the team. Thanks for your work.

Regards,
Randy

__________________
Randy Thornton
Hammerhead, Sentinel, Inspiration, Evolution, & Optima Trimix CCR Instructor
www.diveaddicts.com
www.cavecountrylodging.com

decoweenie

Ron and team,

I am sure the diver's family appreciates able to have closure on their tragedy. And thanks to you and your team for providing that valuable service.

wreckseeker

A day i will never forget! well done boys,dave ,ron scott!! just glad we could bring a brother home,now many can rest!