"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
ups.com...
The incident:


Press Release Date: Oct. 7, 2007
Contact: USCG Public Affairs
206-220-7237

COAST GUARD SEARCHING FOR MISSING DIVER NEAR TACOMA
SEATTLE - The Coast Guard is searching for a missing diver near
Tacoma, Wash., today.

The Tacoma Fire Department notified Coast Guard Sector Seattle at 2:20
p.m. they were searching for a diver who went missing approximately
100 yds. off the shore between downtown Tacoma and Point Defiance.

A 25-foot response boat crew was dispatched from Coast Guard Station
Seattle to assist in the search.

The diver is known to be a male wearing a black wetsuit.

Weather forecasts for the area predict 15-25 knot winds and 2-4 foot
seas.

###
Coast Guard, saving lives since 1790.


I wonder:

People should dive with a buddy. But, for those who don't or can't,
shouldn't there be some sort of small EPIRB or other emergency device
that a diver could cut loose and let rise to the surface? (I'm pretty
sure GPS doesn't work under water.......but I don't know for an
established fact that it doesn't).


There was a diver missing incident in Scituate this summer. Diver was by
himself in the water, but was wearing a wrist lanyard attached to a floating
marker. Several people in the dive boat as well, that watched and tracked
his "bubbles".

Problem was, it was fairly rough water the day of the incident and difficult
to track bubbles. Somehow the diver lost the wrist lanyard and when the
float was retrieved, there was no diver. Three days of intense searching,
including releasing simulators to track drift, etc. found nothing.

Then the rumors started that the whole incident may have been staged.
Unmarried missing diver with two kids, inconsistent stories by the boat
captain (missing diver's brother) and other information that led
investigators to be suspicious started to cast doubt on the whole incident.
The search for the diver was called off, but investigations into his
suspicious disappearance continued.

About two weeks ago, the remains of the body washed ashore not far from his
last known position.

Eisboch