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SPRING 2012
As divers gear up for
summer, an important step in
preparing for the height of dive
season is taking some time to
review, or even create, your
emergency action plan. Not
all dive emergency plans are
created equal, but all have the
same purpose: to list essential
considerations and provide a
framework for performing key
functions in response to an
incident. How does your plan
measure up?
DAN can help you find the
answer to that question with
the latest addition to its online
video lecture series, “How Good
is Your Emergency Plan?” In
it, DAN Medical Information
Specialist Marty McCafferty
discusses what information is
most valuable in the event of an
emergency and why.
Available to all divers, the
video lecture series isn’t just for
individuals; it’s great to watch
in group settings as well. So
whether you watch it on your
own or share it at your next
dive club meeting, find the
answer to “How Good is Your
Emergency Plan,” and make
sure this key component of dive
safety is everything you may
need it to be.
To access the video lecture
series, visit www.DAN.org.
ONLINE
VIDEO
LECTURES
HOW GOOD
IS YOUR
EMERGENCY
ACTION PLAN?
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suming them as a regular menu item, thus
controlling populations even in depths and
areas where divers do not venture. However,
a quick look at lionfish biology and behavior
casts uncertainty on this hope.
Lionfish have formidable defenses in the
form of 18 venomous, needle-sharp spines
across their backs and undersides. These
spines are typically angled in the direction
of potential threats (divers or predators),
and healthy, aware lionfish can prove quite
a challenge for predators. These defenses
evolved over many thousands of years as
a truly effective way to avoid predation. It
is unlikely predators would risk injury or
death to oust lionfish from well-chosen
hideouts simply because they’ve been con-
ditioned to accept dead or incapacitated
lionfish. At this time the body of evidence
does not support predation by native
predators, even where they have been
conditioned. There are shark-feeding sites
in the Bahamas that still have some of the
largest lionfish populations in the world
even though the sharks are fed lionfish
(spines removed) on a regular basis as part
of the feeding attraction. There are other
parts of the Caribbean where lionfish still
fill the reefs even though grouper eagerly
await handouts from divers. Conditioned
predators may become nuisances or even
hazards to divers.
For now, diver removal of lionfish is
the only truly effective method of popula-
tion control. There are numerous ongo-
ing research projects seeking additional
solutions, including studies in the tropical
Pacific to determine how population den-
sity is controlled in the lionfishes’ native
range. Let’s hope this research reveals
additional methods of control.
— Lad Akins
DIVE SLATE
//
The first step in any
emergency is knowing
what you’ll do.