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Having been in the diving industry since 1978, working both

as a diver and in management, I have held a lot of interest in

the profession, and have become dismayed at the rising num-

ber of avoidable fatalities that occur.

In March 1997 I created a

we bs it e lo ng st re at h. co m

more to get a personal email

address than anything else, but

uploaded a list of diving com-

pany contact details to see how

website s were made. The liststarted being popular amongst

divers, and the site has grown

into what is probably the most

visited commercial diving web-

site around today.

Through this site many reports,

some hearsay, and some eyewit-

ness, have been made regards

incidents and fatalities that oth-

erwise escape attention.

TASKED

In April 2011 I came to hear

about a young Italian diver who

died while working at the

Edipower plant in Sermide,

Northern Italy. He was part of a

three-man team tasked to clean

a water intake grill. When it was

noticed that there were no bub-

bles at surface a second diver

dressed in and found that he had

been sucked on to the grill, and

that his mask had been sucked

off. He was recovered to surfaceand failed to respond to any

treatment. He was 21 years old.

Wh en I en te re d in to so me

correspondence with his father,

it effected me in a way that

none of the other fatalities I had

come across in the industry had

been able to. His father wasunderstandably extremely dis-

traught, and wanted to know

how such a thing could happen,

and why the diving companies

were allowed to operate in such

a manner. I had no answer for

him, but decided it was time to

try to do something about it.

Knowing that the regulations

across Europe were minimal to

say the least, I set up a petition

to try to put pressure on theEuropean Community to make

changes such as increasing

minimum manning levels and

banning the use of scuba for

commercial diving purposes.

SUPPORT

Though the petition attracted

a lot of support within the div-

ing community, it also attracted

resistance from within some of

the diving companies and rep-

resentative organisations.At the same time John Roat in

DIVINGVisual systemfor monitoringflexible risersAberdeen, UK-based Bowtech

Products reports it has ful-

filled a contract from Imes,

UK, to supply cameras andlights for a Riser Visual

Inspection System, which has

been used on BP Norges

Skarv development project in

the Norwegian Sea.

The contract Imes involved

the supply of the camera and

lighting components for a visual

inspection system capable of

monitoring the pull-in and

hand-off of flexible risers on BP

Norges Skarv FPSO. The sys-tem included four sets of cam-

eras and lights, all of which

were certified explosion proof to

ATEX regulations and installed

at 90-degree intervals around

the i-tube, similar to the riser

system already in use on the BP

Schiehallion FPSO.

The system also permitted the

inspection of the whole circum-

ference of the tube and inspec-

tion over a vertical length of

around 30 metres, using articu-lated belts and was designed to

operate in air, as well as under-

water, in water depths of up to

100 metres.

Mike Winstanley, sales direc-

tor at Bowtech Products, said:

We were honoured to work

again with Imes and BP on our

third Riser Visual Inspection

System project, which we have

been advised has been a valu-

able tool for monitoring the

pull-in and hang-off of the flex-ible riser system on the FPSO.

Why a DiversAssociation?Mark Longstreath, owner of the popular

Longstreath website, explains the events that

led him to co-found the Divers Association,

which is committed to furthering the

implementation of safe diving practicesthroughout the world

the USA started another petition

to improve on diver safety in his

country. His petition was aimed

at the OSHA (Occupational

Safety and Health Administra-

tion) and the US Coast Guard,whi ch produce the minimum

standards for US operations.

They too allow the use of three-

man teams and scuba for com-

mercial diving operations.

CHANGE

As with the pet ition that I set

up, his had little effect on the

industry bodies, but did gain

support for change within the

operational personnel in the

industry. The use of scuba andthree-man teams is st i l l

allowed today.

Next came the multi-fatality

onboard the DSVKoosha 1 in

Iran, where six Indian divers

lost their lives. The vessel had

been overloaded, and the div-

ing system in extremely poor

condition, when inclement

weather caused it to overturn

and sink, culminating in the

death of the six divers in satand several of the crew.

Through correspondence, the

longstreath.com website and

divers Facebook pages many

divers started to ask what

could be done to prevent such

a horrendous accident, and

how companies could be made

to comply with the safety stan-

dards set by the main industry

bodies IMCA and ADCI.

Af te r th is event, John Ro at

and I, along with several otherconcerned parties, formed

L

BP Norges Skarv FPSO. Picture

courtesy of BP Norge

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DIVING

the Association with the aim

of giving the working diving

personnel a voice in how the

minimum safety standards are

set, to try to improve on thereporting of incidents, and to

bring awareness to the con-

tracting companies of just how

dangerous the current stan-

dards are.

The Association, although in its

infancy, has already attracted the

support of several trade unions,

and prominent individuals such

as Brian Simpson MEP, Georges

Arnoux, Michael Smart author

of Into the Lions Mouth, thestory of the Wildrake incident

and Mike Sisley, former UK

HSE diving inspector.

Using a list of incidents that

we know have occurred within

the industry, the total number

of fatalities over the past 40

years has increased, mainly in

this century, where, if we listento the contractor associations,

the greatest improvements in

safety have been made.

The chart below shows the

total known number of fatalities

per decade, since the 1970s

when the first contractor associ-

ation was formed.

INCREASE

As can be seen, the number of

known fatalities is on theincrease, with the 2010s already

higher than the previous centu-

ry figures, and this is only from

2000 to 2012!

So, why this huge increase? Is

it because of the advent of the

internet, and the ability to com-

municate the occurence of inci-

dents? If it is, were there similarnumbers in decades during the

1900s? Is it due to an increase

in the number of commercial

diving operations? Is it due to

the lack of regulation and mini-

mum standards?

I believe it is a combination of

the above, and that the only way

to get the figures to decrease is

to hold the diving contractors

and clients accountable for the

way in which diving operationsare carried out. To this end, a set

of safe minimum standards

needs to be set and adopted by

the governments of the world.

The implementation of these

standards must be made with

the input of the people who will

have to work by them, and

potentially, die by them.

This is why a Divers Associa-

tion is needed. It is needed to

give diver input into safety

standards that do not favourthe commercial or contractual

aspects that are at the fore-

front today.

L

CPD buyssidescans

www.thediversassociation.com

EdgeTech, USA, reports it

has been awarded a contract

from the Chicago Police

Departments (CDP), USA,

Marine Unit for three 4125sidescan sonar systems. The

systems will be used by the

police department for vari-

ous critical search and recov-

ery operations ranging from

relocation of sunken boats,

cars and aircraft to underwa-

ter surveys related to home-

land security during water-

front festivals, VIP visits and

navy pier operations.

In addition to the wide areahigh-resolution underwater

search capabilities of the 4125

systems, all units provided to

the Chicago Police Department

will have the unique abili ty to

perform ship hull inspections,

said EdgeTech. Additionally, the

systems can be outfitted with

depressor wings for deepwater

operations or pole mounted on

a vessel for easy shallow-water

port and river work.

Two of the systems are config-ured with EdgeTechs ultra

high-resolution frequency pair

600/1600kHz. The third unit is

configured with dual simultane-

ous 400/900kHz frequencies.

New-build diving vessel to join Subsea 7 fleet

1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s

Subsea 7 has signed a contract to build a new dive support

vessel (DSV). The new vessel will be delivered in 2015.

The state-of-the-art vessel,designed by Wrtsil Ship

Design, Finland, will be built by

Korean company Hyundai

Heavy Industries (HHI).

With accommodation for 110

people, the DSV will incorporate

an 18-man saturation system

supplied by Drass, Italy, and

rated for 300 metres with two

moon-pool deployed three-man

diving bells and two 18-man

hyperbaric life-boats.

The vessel is intended forNorth Sea diving operations on

a year round basis. It will be thethird new-build DSV to join the

Subsea 7 fleet in recent years,

with the company having taken

delivery of the Seven Atlantic in

2010 and Seven Havila in 2011.

LEADING

Steve Wisely, Subsea 7 execu-

tive vice president Commercial,

said: To build and equip this

vessel we are delighted to work

with industry leaders HHI, Drass

and Wrtsil Ship Design. Thevessel will reinforce our leading

diving capabilities with one of

the worlds largest DSV fleets,and enable us to continue to

serve our clients in an efficient,

cost-effective and safe manneron many future projects.

Artists impression of

the new-build

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