RESEARCH, EDUCATION & MEDICINE
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S K I L L S I N A C T I O N
58
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SPRING 2014
M
idway through their 10-day live-
aboard trip, the large, experienced
group of underwater photographers
had gotten into a good rhythm of
diving, resting, eating, editing photos
and hitting the water again in search of new subjects.
Late one afternoon a skiff crammed with divers and
photo gear set out from the mother ship. It made its way
toward an easy shallow site with small bommies and
rocks strewn along a sloping sand bar. The site was shel-
tered from the strong currents and choppy seas common
in Palau.
All the divers had undergone an extensive safety briefing
and had been issued a surface marker buoy (SMB) and an
audible signaling device if they didn’t already have their
own. The group and two guides split up into small groups
and pairs to capture the macro subjects they were after.
Early in the dive, Jim, who had brought along wide-
angle gear, decided the conditions weren’t favorable for
the kind of photography he wanted to do, so he signaled
a guide and headed up. The guide watched him reach the
surface and then returned his attention to the other divers.
After about an hour, the others ended their dives and
began to surface. As the skiff went along picking them up,
many began wondering aloud where Jim was.
Jim had surfaced an hour previously. He had seen the
skiff a short distance away and waited for the crew to pick
him up. There was a light breeze, the skies were relatively
clear, and Jim was sure they’d see him in a minute or two.
But the crew was not expecting anybody to surface after
20 minutes; typically, if a diver were to have a problem it
would occur in the first few minutes of a dive.
Jim drifted in the light wind. He inflated his SMB and
blew his whistle. A low, bright sun behind him made him
hard to see, however, and the wind blew his whistle blast
away. He also had trouble keeping his SMB upright.
Jim watched the skiff pick up the other divers and then
begin searching for him. It made pass after pass upwind
of him, but no one spotted him. As darkness began to fall,
he turned on a small strobe light that he had on his BCD.
After radioing the liveaboard, the crew of the skiff
made progressively longer S-sweeps while 20 pairs of eyes
looked for Jim in every direction. They cut the engine
periodically to listen for Jim’s whistle, but no one heard
Prepare to Get Found
Take part in your own rescue before you get lost.
B y J a c k C o n n i c k
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