flashing light at night ?
Submitted by perth fisher on Sat, 2014-02-15 20:35
i have been told that scuba divers need to have a flag during the day, and a flashing light at night
but do snorkellers need to have a flashing light at night ?
and how does wading for crabs work with regards needing a flashing light?
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
http://www.transport.wa.gov.
http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/imarine/diving.asp
Fish! HARD!
Terry
Posts: 458
Date Joined: 04/12/05
excellent
that is an excellent publication......with some stuff I was unaware of.
Thanks cobber
Tim
Posts: 2497
Date Joined: 26/09/06
Diving
You will find that the definition of diving for those rules is for when using tanks/scuba and not snorkelling.
If you look at the Diver brochure http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/marine/MAC_B_CautionDiverBelow.pdf it has the following
"While it is not law it is highly recommended that snorkelers display a dive flag particularly when snorkelling offshore or in areas of high boating traffic."
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
Fish! HARD!
Terry
Posts: 458
Date Joined: 04/12/05
yep
Although not required by law I would always use a flag whilst snorkelling.
Having nearly been run over several times by boats even with my flag visible it makes sense to use one .
A no brainer really.
Sharky1
Posts: 18
Date Joined: 17/08/15
As far as I knew it was law
As far as I knew it was law to display the diver below flag when snorkelling from a boat, but otherwise not??? Divers not diving from a boat are now required to have an anchored bouy with a blue & white flag to my knowledge.
I don't know about snorkelling at night.
Wading for crabs? Really??? The blue & white flag for diver/snorkeller is displayed on the boat, NOT the person. I haven't met anyone who wades for crabs off a boat yet. Seems pointless to take a boat out purposely to stay in th shallows when you can just wade out there from shore.
Also if you're wading you're likely to be within 50M of shore & within an 8knot zone & the sections of estuary that are shallow enough to wade out beyond 50M are generally 8 knot zones anyway. And finally the reason for a diver/snorkeller flag is that when you swim or dive, you're horizontal & therefore almost invisible to skippers & as you're looking down, your're not able to see boats coming & dive out of their way. If you're wading, at least half your body is above the water & you're not only quite visible, you're capable of seeing & hearing boats & either getting out of their way or shouting & waving to get their attention. It's a no brainer really.
Squirmworm
Posts: 10
Date Joined: 25/01/16
Great resource that I didn't
Great resource that I didn't know about. Thanks for sharing it!