"Divers Down" Exclusion Zone Violations

[Geoff Apthorp]

4 spearboard members dove the boxcars this week-end with great conditions and excellent spearfishing. Everyone had fun and we filled the cooler literally on the first dive.

The only development that detracted from the day involved other boaters (hook and liners) who repeatedly violated our divers down exclusion circle around our boat. I had two divers up and two down while I maintainted drifting position between 2 marker buoys we splashed about 15 yards apart. Having just completed the master mariner's class I'm complying with the required day signals (flags) and radio protocols.

Problem is, one of the boats out there near us ignored the radio the flags, the buoys, and me trying to wave him off. I was about to launch a flare over the guy's bow when he started jigging and then hooked and played an AJ about 100 ft from us. Our guys in the water on their safety stops watched the hooked fish fight from underwater. Luckily, our boys surfaced on my stern and not his. I know if the guy hooked Rodney Penwell, his Rodney fillets would be damn tough and gamey tasting too!!!

On the Mexican pride last year, one guy dropped his anchor not 10 feet from Tammy Too. The guy's ground tackle missed my head (I was at 20 feet preparing to safety stop) by 6 inches. I spoke to him at reaching the surface. He gunned his engines dragging his anchor and nearly broadsiding my boat. There were still divers in the water behind me.

Onboard Tammy Too, we're big on courtesy - treating others the way we want to be treated. So if we come up on someone who is on our dive target before we are, we try to communicate by radio or over the gunnels concerning whether or not dropping divers near them will be a problem or not. It's amazing what warm courtesy is extended back to us in these instances. Sunday, at the box cars, one guy let us dive his marker buoy when we asked permission to dive near him. He had lost a shaft and we tried to locate it for him. What a great guy.

Anyway, the USCG has better things to do than referee these incidents, and I know if we escalate these close encounters after exhausting our diplomatic tactics, someone will undoubtedly get hurt.

Any suggestions? Here;s the code on the diver down flag. FYI

327.331 Divers; definitions; divers-down flag required; obstruction to navigation of certain waters; penalty.--
(1) As used in this section: (a) "Diver" means any person who is wholly or partially submerged in the waters of the state and is equipped with a face mask and snorkel or underwater breathing apparatus.

(b) "Underwater breathing apparatus" means any apparatus, whether self-contained or connected to a distant source of air or other gas, whereby a person wholly or partially submerged in water is enabled to obtain or reuse air or any other gas or gases for breathing without returning to the surface of the water.

(c) "Divers-down flag" means a flag that meets the following specifications:

1. The flag must be square or rectangular. If rectangular, the length must not be less than the height, or more than 25 percent longer than the height. The flag must have a wire or other stiffener to hold it fully unfurled and extended in the absence of a wind or breeze.

2. The flag must be red with a white diagonal stripe that begins at the top staff-side of the flag and extends diagonally to the lower opposite corner. The width of the stripe must be 25 percent of the height of the flag.

3. The minimum size for any divers-down flag displayed on a buoy or float towed by the diver is 12 inches by 12 inches. The minimum size for any divers-down flag displayed from a vessel or structure is 20 inches by 24 inches.

4. Any divers-down flag displayed from a vessel must be displayed from the highest point of the vessel or such other location which provides that the visibility of the divers-down flag is not obstructed in any direction.

(2) All divers must prominently display a divers-down flag in the area in which the diving occurs, other than when diving in an area customarily used for swimming only.

(3) No diver or group of divers shall display one or more divers-down flags on a river, inlet, or navigation channel, except in case of emergency, in a manner which shall unreasonably constitute a navigational hazard.

(4) Divers shall make reasonable efforts to stay within 100 feet of the divers-down flag on rivers, inlets, and navigation channels. Any person operating a vessel on a river, inlet, or navigation channel must make a reasonable effort to maintain a distance of at least 100 feet from any divers-down flag.

(5) Divers must make reasonable efforts to stay within 300 feet of the divers-down flag on all waters other than rivers, inlets, and navigation channels. Any person operating a vessel on waters other than a river, inlet, or navigation channel must make a reasonable effort to maintain a distance of at least 300 feet from any divers-down flag.

(6) Any vessel other than a law enforcement or rescue vessel that approaches within 100 feet of a divers-down flag on a river, inlet, or navigation channel, or within 300 feet of a divers-down flag on waters other than a river, inlet, or navigation channel, must proceed no faster than is necessary to maintain headway and steerageway.

(7) The divers-down flag must be lowered once all divers are aboard or ashore. No person may operate any vessel displaying a divers-down flag unless the vessel has one or more divers in the water.

1(8) Any willful violation of this section shall be a misdemeanor of the second degree punishable as provided by s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

[zds3488]

Maybe it was Captain Hook. :)

[PaulR]

Rodney would be one pissed dude. I would not like to be around that... :(

Stuff like this always happens here on the east coast. I see it a lot while I am fishing the kingfish grounds. Divers are down, and some guys ignore the markers and flags and start their right turn(you commercial guys know about the right/left turn :D )

I am by no means an expert on this matter, but when a dive flag is up, arn't other boats allowed to approach at idle speed? Or something like that.

Some people are just rude and need an old fashioned ass woopin.

[Geoff Apthorp]

Roger that Paul - Are you talking about a "right turn" with trolling tackle aft?

[PaulR]

Yep. the commercial guys drive in circles around the school of fish.

Theres a lot of rocks out here that are right in the middle of the high traffic fishing areas that hold nice fish.

[Ed Walker]

Paul you gotta lose that pic. You are freakin' me out bro.

[PaulR]

I donno, I think it fits me well :D

[Reaperspear]

Gamey tasting I bet I'd taste like crap, mosquito's won't even bite me. Our problem is in the code sub-section (6) to be exact.



(6) Any vessel other than a law enforcement or rescue vessel that approaches within 100 feet of a divers-down flag on a river, inlet, or navigation channel, or within 300 feet of a divers-down flag on waters other than a river, inlet, or navigation channel, must proceed no faster than is necessary to maintain headway and steerageway.

The code was written with the hopes that the reader would have the common sense to read between the lines. We as a group are going to have to request a revision of sub-section (6). I visited one of the fishing sites where this was being discussed and the hook and liners seem to view it as slow down but, you don't have to reel in your lines. We need the revision to plainly state that when approaching a Diver Down Flag all lines must be out of the water. Our only other course of action is to carry video recorders and film violators. In all honesty it is probably going to require a combination of the two before we get any results.

Hopefully those results will come before someone gets hurt.

[Whitelightnin]

Maybe we should start "collecting" the fishing tackle & anchors we "find" around our bouys.

James

[Geoff Apthorp]

It would have been an interesting video spot if things had turned out differently and that not too smart fisherman had hauled Rodney, an ex-paratroop with an 8 inch kill spike in his teeth, over the gunnel. "Death from below!"

Rodney - all joking aside - you're correct about video and pictures of the flagrant violations. We should have shot a few pics to at least get the guy's reg numbers.

[Speargun]

"Diver" means any person who is wholly or partially submerged in the waters of the state...
This is the snag. Unless you are in state waters, this law doesn't apply. The good news is that there is a federal law about diver down flags. Can someone post it? I don't have it.

If you are in state waters, and someone voilates this law, this is the course of action I would recommend:
Take a picture if possible.
Write down the FL number, description of the boat, driver and any passengers.
Write down the date, time, and location. You might have to give up a GPS number, but this will be needed to determine venue.
Write down the names, D.O.B., address, phone numbers, etc, of your passengers and divers who were below at the time of the violation.

Once you have all of the information you can get, contact the FWC as soon as possible and make a report of the incident. Make sure that you get a case number. Insist that the officer lists the boat owner in the report. Even if he wasn't driving, he is ultimately responsible for what is done with his boat.
Chances are that the officer won't be able to do anything about it because it is a misdemeanor that didn't occur in his presence, but make sure you get a report! In fact, have all of your witnesses give you a, signed, written statement with their personal information on it. Give the officer the originals to put in evidence and keep a copy for yourself.
Once you are armed with your statements and case number, contact the state attorneys office and set up an appointment to get a warrant.

At this point, you have done all that you can. It will be up to the state and a judge to decide if they will issue a warrant. If they do, the suspect will get picked up. The next step is where the suspect can plead guilty or not guilty. If guilty, the judge passes sentence and your part is done. If not guilty, get ready for trial.

Welcome to the Florida legal system. :D If you jump through all of the hoops, you might have a good chance of winning the case.

This sounds like a major pain in the azz, but if you want to get some changes in the law, there is going to have to be some records of violations. Right now, I bet you would be hard pressed to find any records of any diver down flag violation on the books. Most people just don't want to go through the trouble of all of the paperwork. It's easier to just b!tch about it and move on. If it was reported to a FWC officer, they probably just said they couldn't do anything about it because they didn't see it and never offered to write a report.

If the incident occurs in federal waters, the process should be about the same, but it would have to be reported to a federal officer; most likely the Coast Guard.

[100days-a-year]

Colregs would be on USCG site somewhere.I have found a frienly chat at the ramp can help persuade the other guy.1,he knows you know who he is and have enough balls to find him and 2 you can explain the consequences to hin.He would be liable for any damage done and if it ever gets out he was in prison on a manslaughter or assualt charge like that he would be ass-aulted.A jury might have a little stricter definition of reasonable.So would my attorney .

[Geoff Apthorp]

Gents - Excellent comments, both!

In this particular instance I was worried my divers could get hurt.
If there is a next time, I have printed out the procedure you wrote, and will follow it.

Thank you!!

Geoff

[FredT]

"Any person operating a vessel on waters other than a river, inlet, or navigation channel must make a reasonable effort to maintain a distance of at least 300 feet from any divers-down flag."

That word reasonable is there to allow plenty of wiggle room.

I've been run over more than once, with multiple witnesses each time.

The "standard" fine assessed for a hook and line fishing boat or "party barge" hitting a diver properly displaying a dive flag the price of getting his prop straightened.

In my experience the DAs intrest in prosecuting this type of "offense" is somewhere between slim and none, and Slim is on the flight to Sydney. The olny exception is if a congresscritter's (or other member of the power elite's) kid is the one with the skull divot.

Running a 200 to 300 yard length of water colored 3/8" polypro off your stern with a rotten stopper in the cleat is an effective deterrent to repeat offenders though. it's especially effective if you can cross their bow a hundred yards ahead of them while driving dead slow, Not many boats can run effectivley with all that line wrapped up in the prop, struts and rudder. Makes it easy to go visit them later and help with a tow in, or at least call Sea Tow to help out. Polypro even stretches well enough that it's a real bitch to cut off a prop shaft.

BTW salvaged lines off ghost traps and from beachcombing expeditions seems to work extremely well. It'll have good shaft grabbing encrustations, and the price it right. ;)

FT