Mexico - Q.Roo Cave Safety Officer Buletin

mattmexico

yo all

I got this mail from the Q.Roo cave safety officers who have formed that comite in order to co-ordinate their efforst

Matt


Quintana Roo Safety Officers Newsletter May 06

Fellow Cavern / Cave Divers welcome to the monthly Q. Roo Safety Officers
Newsletter.
The newsletter this month has information on the following topics:

1. Response to last months newsletter
2. Maintaining Consistency of Permanent Guidelines and Markers
3. Protocol for equipment left in the Cave
4. Removal of a Primary Reel from A Tunnel Maya Blue on April 20th
5. Vaca Ha Dive Site Cleanup
6. German Yañez Mendoza Cozumel Safety Officer
7. Cozumel’s Safety Officer Report

Please feel free to forward this newsletter on to anyone you feel may be
interested in it.

Any questions, comments or suggestions concerning the newsletter should be
sent via email to: qroocavesafety@hotmail.com

Please note that responses to the monthly newsletter will not be addressed
on a personal basis or by a particular individual, but on a board level
after being discussed among the Safety Officers and will be posted in the
following months newsletter.

If you are not receiving this email newsletter directly and wish to be added

to our mailing list please send an email with your full name and the word
subscribe in the subject line.

If you wish to be removed from the mailing list please send an email to with

your full name and the word unsubscribe in the subject line.

Thank you for your interest and help in making cave diving in Q. Roo safer
and more enjoyable for all.

Q. Roo Safety Officers Committee
qroocavesafety@hotmail.com

GUE - Safety Officer Daniel Riordan
IANTD - Safety Officer Michael Silva Netto
NACD - Safety Officer Chuck Stevens
NSS-CDS - Safety Officer Steve Bogaerts
NACD & NSS-CDS Safety Officer Cozumel German Yañez Mendoza



1. Response to last months newsletter

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the cave diving community
for the many messages of support and offers of help we have received in
response to last month’s Introduction letter from the Q. Roo Safety Officers

Committee.

We will be asking for help in various projects we plan to undertake the
first of which is a dive site cleanup at Vaca Ha (see item #5).
We hope to see some of you there.


2. Maintaining Consistency of Permanent Guidelines and Markers

One of the goals of the Safety Officers Committee is to maintain consistency

of the permanent lines and markers within the cave systems of the area.

This will be an impossible task without the cooperation and vigilance of the

whole cave diving community.

Unfortunately we are confronted by a long standing problem. That is certain
individuals making changes to the permanent lines and markers in the caves
to suit their own agendas without regard to anyone else.

Having made changes the individual/s responsible has not bothered to notify
anyone of them.

It is extremely frustrating for all the other cave divers using the caves
who will not then be aware of any changes that have been made to permanent
lines or markers with which they were previously familiar until during the
actual dive.

Pre-dive plans can no longer be made with any degree of certainty as to the
actual state of the permanent lines or markers and existing maps that may be

being used as an aid for dive planning purposes are rendered out of date and

no longer accurately represent the current situation.

This behavior is at best selfish and at worst potentially unsafe and should
stop immediately.

The permanent lines and markers in the caves should remain consistent from
dive to dive, week to week and year to year.

In reality few if any changes are required to the vast majority of the
permanent lines or markers within the caves here in Quintana Roo.

We ask all cave divers to help maintain consistency in the permanent lines
and markers within the cave systems by not changing them independently.

Should anyone feel a change is needed to the permanent lines or markers for
whatever reason then the following procedure should be used:

6. Contact the Quintana Roo Safety Officers Committee
7. The proposed change will be posted on the website once it is up an
running and sent out via the monthly e-mail newsletter to as many people
within the local cave diving community as is possible and opinions
canvassed.
8. A decision about any change will be made based upon the majority
view.
9. If a change is deemed necessary the safety officer committee will
coordinate it, advance notice will be given of the exact change to take
place and the date on which it will be made.
10. Upon completion of the change notification will be posted on the
website
and via the monthly newsletter and may also be posted at the start of the
relevant permanent line/s and on site at the relevant cenote/s.

As cave divers we have a responsibility to one another and to cave safety in

general.
If you should observe any changes to the permanent lines or markers while
cave diving please report them too the Safety Officer Committee and include
the following information:

7. Name of the cave system
8. Date on which the change was observed
9. The exact location in the cave where the change was observed
10. Details of the change made
11. Name of person who made the change if known
12. Names and contact details of any other cave diver’s on site who may
be
able to provide further information.

This information will assist us in returning the permanent line and markers
to there original condition as soon as possible and will also help to
identify any individual/s responsible for making unauthorized changes.

If any individual is found to be repeatedly making unauthorized changes the
committee will contact their respective training agency/s and request that
their cave diving certification be revoked due to unsafe behavior.

Thank you for your assistance in this effort to make cave diving here safer.


3. Protocol for equipment left in the cave

When planning and executing cave dives particularly circuits and traverses
it is normal practice that equipment such as reels, personal markers and
stage or deco tanks will often be left in the cave to be collected at a
later date.

Every effort should be made to recover equipment left in the cave in as
timely a manner as possible.

If it is planned that equipment will be left in the cave for an extended
period beyond a few days then a note specifying ownership, contact
information and the anticipated removal date should be attached to it.

If for whatever circumstances equipment is left in the cave which the diver
is unable to recover themselves then please email the Safety Officers
Committee and we will arrange for its removal and return if possible.

Equipment that appears to have been forgotten or abandoned having been left

in the cave for a considerable time will be removed by the Safety Officer
Committee. If ownership cannot be established it will be left with the
landowner / gate person at the relevant site.


4. Removal of a Primary Reel from A Tunnel Maya Blue April 20th

A primary reel connecting open water to the start of the permanent gold cave

line in A Tunnel of Cenote Maya Blue (aka Escondido) Sistema Naranhal has
been left in place for more than 6 weeks.
The start of the line was covered in algae / bacterial growth and the s/s
clip of the reel was starting to rust.
The reel has no name on it and enquiries have been unsuccessful in
identifying the owner.
It appears the reel has been forgotten or abandoned.
The reel was removed on April 20th and left with the gatekeeper at the
Cenote Cristal (aka Naharon) together with an explanatory note.
If anyone knows to whom the reel belongs please pass this information on to
them.

5. Vaca Ha Dive Site Clean-up

Anyone who has visited Vaca Ha to cave dive recently will have observed the
large amount of trash at this site.
Much of this has appeared since it was used by the construction workers
during the widening of the Coba road.
We are planning to spend a day cleaning up Vaca Ha on Friday 12th May
starting at 10am and would be glad of any help received.
Anyone wishing to help should contact Mike Netto (e-mail:
mike@protecdiving.com cell #: 984-803-1168) as he will be coordinating the
cleanup effort.


6. German Yañez Mendoza Cozumel Safety Officer

German Yañez Mendoza who is the NACD & NSSCDS Safety Officer for the Island
of Cozumel has joined the Q. Roo Safety Officers Committee and we would like

to take this opportunity to thank German for his help.
German will be providing information and news about safety issues relevant
to the Caverns and Caves of Cozumel which will be included in the monthly
newsletter and posted on the Q. Roo Cave Safety website once it is up and
running.
Please see this months posting from German below


7. Cozumel’s Safety Officer Report


Recommendations from the Safety Officer for NSS-CDS & NACD in Cozumel
Germán Yañez


SAFETY PROGRAMS

Currently there are several cavern warning signs being installed in the
Cueva Quebrada System (exit to the ocean) and at the Chankanaab park’s
lagoon, where there are 2 cave systems that are easily accessible for
recreational divers that visit this park.
Wilma collapsed a section in the Cueva Quebrada System (exit to the ocean)
inside the Chankanaab Park. At this time this section presents no danger for

cavern or cave divers.
The park is currently working on a safety program for the Cueva Quebrada
System, which will be announced August 7th when the park is opening its
doors officially

STAE OF LINES


Currently all lines are in good shape, except some tunnels in the Aerolito
System, where a replacement is needed, for example: Part of the Bozanic Pit
circuit and The Sulphur River Tunnel, the rest of the lines are in good
shape.
As soon as the changes take place we will let the community know with detail

of where and when the changes will take place.

FRAGILE AREAS

We consider that all the cenotes in Cozumel are fragile. The simple fact
that they are found on an island makes them a vulnerable place with a high
risk of environmental damage. On top of all this, the visibility, size and
flow found in them, make them a highly vulnerable place that could be
affected by cave divers with poor buoyancy control.
All the cenotes in Cozumel including Chankanaab (Lla Quebrada), Sistema
Cocodrilo, Tres Potrillos etc. are considered fragile in their entirety
This is the main reason we only use ONLY ONE site for training and critical
skill practice. The rest of the cave systems are reserved for TRAINED cave
divers with good buoyancy control.
All the tunnels in the caves in Cozumel have very fragile speleothems. Help
us with their conservation by practicing good diving skills.

ACCESS TO THE CENOTES

After Hurricane Wilma ALL the paths are open again, except for Cenote Sifa.
I would like to thank Mateo Gutiérrez and Fernando Paulin for their support
and volunteer work to open these paths again after Wilma.
In the Sistema Cocodrilo a permit is required and a liability release form
from the land owner must be filled prior to diving. The same applies to the
Chankanaab System (La Quebrada) entering by the Ckankanaab park. It is
prohibited to dive these places without a certification card as a Cavern,
Intro to Cave or Full Cave diver.
Currently ALL the caves in Cozumel are diveable and in perfect shape for
cave diving.

DPVs / STAGE BOTTLES

The caves in Cozumel due to their reduced size, force divers to have great
control over DPV’s because it is very easy to damage the speleothems if the
diver doesn’t have good control or experience with their use. Because of
this reason it is recommended EXCLUSIVELY for divers with proper training
and with at least 50 logged dives utilizing DPV’s. The conditions one might
encounter, like visibility, flow and confined spaces require more attention
than other cave systems.

VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATIONS

I World like to thank the NSS-CDS and the Universidad de Quintana Roo campus

Cozumel (UQROO) for their support in conservation, education, as well as
providing material to promote safe cave diving and to create environmental
awareness in Cozumel
Also people that volunteered after Wilma, as well as scientists that provide

valuable information that can be used to better understand the cenotes in
Cozumel:
Dr. Luís Mejia UQROO
Bill Rottella NSS-CDS
Mateo Gutiérrez
Fernando Paulin


FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS

The caves in the island of Cozumel have a complex navigation pattern, have
multiple haloclines, with limited points of entry into each system, higher
flow and the visibility is not as good as the caves in the Riviera Maya. It
is important to mention all these differences to make sure all cave divers
take them into consideration and plan accordingly and plan the dives
conservatively and more detailed in aspects like gas management, complexity
of the dive, nitrogen intake and mixed gas management.
Please remove all NON BIODEGRADABLE garbage found inside the caves.
If broken lines are encountered please repair them and/or let the Safety
Officer know about it.
Don’t dive on your own.
Make sure you have the adequate equipment for the dive.
Do not make any visual jumps or blind circuits.

__________________
N 20' 37.617'
W 87' 04.693'
www.andreaswmatthes.com

Crazyduck

Excellent report Matt.

I cannot subscribe to the listing- password is required.

Have a great day.
Later, Andrew

__________________
Howdy Senor- What’s Happening!
Rob Davie April 2005-

Presently in a state of transition from Open Circuit to Closed Circuit.

"You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by it." - Buddha.

schford

Thanks for Sharing very much appreciated.

Stuart

__________________
Bailout and Kit Management account for Murphy's Law

The only bad question is one you did not ask and later wish you had.

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