TV shows about divers who are stranded on the ocean for days. Preventable?

[Adam6521]

I was watching this show on animal planet about these 2 divers off Australia.  One was a female, one was male.  The female had a bad feeling about the dive and the guy pushed her along.  So they dive, after come up and the current took them away from the boat.  The boat was far away and could not hear them yelling from boat.  They spend at least 24 hours in the sea until they were found.
I have only been diving for 1 year, but I thought this whole situation could have been prevented or could not have turned out so bad.
Okay I will walk you through this.
*Yes the story is real, and yes it is a reenactment.
They had an encounter with sharks and barracudas.  They also decided to swim even tho they did not know where they were swimming to and plus wasting their energy and may attract shark!
Here is what I found wrong and how this could MAY have been prevented.
*This guy has been diving for 30 years so you would think he would do things differently. 
*Also I know charters or divers are not perfect or set up 100% Incase of any emergency
The female did not feel comfortable diving, so the guy kinda pushed her.
*Still her responsibility to dive if wanting to.
Male did not tell her about common occurrences of hammer head sharks.
*yes, he kept that maybe to keep her from not being scared, but still isn't it your responsibility to tell about the dive, no matter what?
When divers came up boat had back turned and could not find them.
*When I went to Cozumel I bought a whistle and buddy had a signal noodle thing that inflated about 4-5 feet long to be seen about the water.
So if divers had a whistle or signaling device this could have changed everything for the good.

People on the boat did not say or showed they used radio, cell phone, or BINOCULARS!
I think all boats would have something like this to call for help?  Maybe GPS coordinates may help.
Yes its in another country but the boat should have communication?

Did they drop their weights or belt?  The male diver kept telling her ah, well be found in a few hours.
Okay? cocky or trying to calm her down, or flat out lie?

They worried so much about not kicking or splashing.  But lets swim and make some noise!

Than the female took off her mask and lost it, connected with snorkel, oh great idea!

Than they ran into jelly fish and was bitten quite a few times.
*when I went to Mexico i wore full wet suit and gloves while everone didn't and got bit up.
So glove could have saved them from bites, plus than they would not have splashed around so mush to attract shark!
Than ran into a type of organism that glows when they were kicking and waving their hands, well that attracts predators also.
Well thats about it.  I just think there were way to many things that could have been done for this to be prevented.
Plus his brother had to fly in 8 hours away then went to a helicopter charter, than still did not find them.  Why wait for the brother.  Plus its not like they have to coast guard handy.  Well maybe

[BallastBoy]

They're very preventable.

The TV or movie studio execs just have to say "NO!" in a loud and firm voice when confronted with someone trying to sell a drama based on this crap.

If they don't leave, then security should be called.


More to the point, a dive accident where divers are stranded or lost like this is not that different from an accident where someone unqualified does their own reg maintenance, or someone without the needed training does a deco dive, or divers pay a local fisherman to drive them out somewhere in a boat rather than spend a few more bucks on a real dive charter.  It all starts with someone being stupid, either as a way of life or the occasional attack of stupid we all get now and then.

I'm happy to say I've never been on a dive boat where the operator didn't do their best to track the customers.  At worst they just made sure they got out of the water the same number of people that went in, and at best they track your bubbles while you're in the water and check how you feel when you get out.  This is basic safety practice... it's like making sure you have enough fuel to make the trip, or packing life preservers.  If you don't do it you risk your life (liability) and your customers, and you shouldn't be in that business.

These TV "drama" shows would be even less interesting than they are if they told the truth about how the divers that got lost did so because they ignored safety rules, or hired an inept or shady charter boat operator to save money, or swam the opposite direction from the other divers out into the current because they didn't want to be crowded.  It's hard to empathize with the central characters in a drama if they got where they are by being complete idiots.

Oh, and the "encounter with sharks and barracuda" thing is more "drama".  When I'm on vacation I spend a lot of time on the surface of the water swimming, hoping to encounter sharks and barracuda.  I call it "snorkeling".

BB

[arcFlash]

As a comparison to how much poetic license they took read DAN's 2008 accident report. I try and read it every year and it will bore you to tears but I try and learn from it none the less. Real stories can be told in 5 minutes so they have to turn it into a human drama to fill the time.

[Adam6521]

Yes, for sure.  Thanks for the feed back.  There is a show called whale hunters or something.  About a group that goes out and trys to stop japan whaleing operations.  ****These people do great work and put their lives on the line****, but its filled with drama.  Mis communication.  Last show they said a guy got hit by a water cannon and "said" he was bleeding everywhere.  They made it sound like he was dieing.  I never saw no blood, even when he got to the ship there was no blood.  Yes shows like this need fillers or extra drama to make shows.  Than the opposing ship threw brass hex nuts at them, and they were calling them chunks of metal and bolts.  They showed a picture, I said, THEY ARE HEX NUTS!  The word(s) hex or nut was not even used.  Come on!