Originally published at: Couple abandoned in waters off Lanai when snorkeling tour group forgets about them | Boing Boing
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curious that that’s also the intro plot device in the currently showing (rather vapid, sez i) Roberts/Clooney rom-com film “Ticket to Paradise”.
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“Reportedly, the tour company has since changed their head count procedure.”
And it was working so well, too…
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Hopefully they dropped all of the tour operator’s equipment to save energy and the state sues them for dumping in the ocean and recovery fees.
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I’d rather people not litter if they can help it even in an attempt to stick it to someone else. There’s enough garbage already.
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Reportedly, the tour company has since changed their head count procedure.
At least i would hope so
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And the currents in the strait between Lanai and Maui are strong enough that gear dropped there is going to travel a long way before it settles.
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hear, hear! no more plastic in the ocean, please!
besides, they were snorkeling, so mask, snorkel, fins (and the dreaded “horse collar” buoyancy device most operations make you wear) so you’re going to want to hang on to that shit. might save your life.
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Came here for this.
Also, I’m hoping they could sue the hell out of the tour company for reckless endangerment.
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That was based on the Lonergrans – I was diving in Queensland a few months later on a live aboard and, let me tell you, they counted the every-loving hell out of us.
Disappearance of Tom and Eileen Lonergan - Wikipedia(born%2028,trip%20on%20MV%20Outer%20Edge.
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I spent a year in Australia as an exchange student in the 90s and arrived just a couple weeks after the Lonergans were accidentally abandoned in the Coral Sea. It was a pretty big news story there and still very much in the collective consciousness when I decided to take scuba lessons some months later.
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I’ve volunteered for an annual junior sailing regatta, and in my non-litigious country, we SCAN those kids onto and off of the water. It is not hard to do. Inventory control!
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Around 2015, I did some scuba diving around the Agincourt Reefs area. Though I was aware of the Open Water movie (didn’t watch it before my dive adventure, natch), I didn’t realize the true story took place in the area where I was going. Holy smokes. What I do recall was that the dive boats did several rounds of head counts, though, told us not to move until they were done, to get an accurate count.
That couple in Maui/Lanai, I’m so glad they were able to make it to shore. I’d imagine there are currents between/among those islands that could whisk you out to sea.
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Off the Florida coast a few years back, a dive boat outfit managed to lose not one, but TWO groups of divers on drift dives, for hours. If I recall, other dive captains brought them back or found them.
That particular dive captain also (in the same year) lost his thumb during a shark dive tour where he stupidly baits the sharks in (a terrible practice that makes sharks associate people with food opportunities).
So if you’re ever in the Jupiter region, and your captain resembles this diagram, you may want to stay on the dock.
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And that makes intentionally dumping water in the ocean ok?
Oh wait maybe/probably that wasn’t your point.
It means that they definitely should not have dumped their rental gear (which they didn’t) in the ocean because there would be no way to recover it with the currents in that area. Not because of any loss to the irresponsible tour company but because it would become unrecoverable plastic trash.
In other words, I was agreeing with your point and adding to it.
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