Posted on 02/02/2017 3:17:13 PM PST by BBell
A scuba diver missing from the Florida Keys since Tuesday has been identified as a well-known Canadian underwater filmmaker and conservationist.
Rob Stewart, 37, was diving with a small group on the wreck of the Queen of Nassau near Alligator Reef off Lower Matecumbe Key in about 225 feet of water, his sister Alexandra Stewart said by phone from Toronto on Wednesday morning. He was filming an installment of his Sharkwater documentary series, she said.
Stewart and another diver were using closed-circulation rebreathing dive equipment instead of conventional scuba tanks, which are open-air circulation, according to an email from the conservation group Sea Shepherd.
They both resurfaced about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday and the other diver got onto their dive boat boat and passed out. When the dive boat crew went to retrieve Stewart, he was no longer in sight. According to the Sea Shepherd email, the boat crew members think Stewart passed out as well and floated off.
His sister said she is worried that his buoyancy control device, which keeps divers floating at the surface, isn’t fully inflated.
“Time is really important right now,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
These guys were in 225 feet of water. Would nitrogen be a problem that deep?
From Wikipedia(and yes I know all about Wikipedia):
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is a non-profit, marine conservation organization based in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington, in the United States.[1] Sea Shepherd uses direct action tactics to protect marine life. The organization was founded in 1977 under the name Earth Force Society by Paul Watson, a former member of Greenpeace, after a dispute with that organization over what Watson saw as its lack of more aggressive intervention.[2] The group has a strong focus on public relations to spread its message via the media. In 2008, Animal Planet began filming the weekly series Whale Wars based on the group's encounters with the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, a development which brought the group much publicity.
He's under, and narrates the action, "I knew it was dangerous, but I had to get to the surface fast" for some forgotten reason.
So he slips off the tank, turns off the tank, mounts with the valve end down, and starts whacking at said valve with the butt of his knife, and "rockets" to the surface.
"Dangerous"? Yes. Stupid. Yes. Doable? Probably not.
I guess it didn't occur to the writers to have him simply yank on the emergency CO2 inflator on the buoyancy compensator if he potentially wanted to injure himself that way.
They were probably using an O2-HE2 mixture.
Since two divers had problems, I'm guessing they bought the lithium CO2 removal canisters from El Cheapo Globalists Supply and Die Company.
“I’m guessing he’s only half the man he used to be, by now.”
I remember that bit, don’t remember who did it. An alternate “Jaws” theme. In falsetto.
Moray eel got em...grabbed hold of him and would not let go.
Usually considered a bad idea to ascend faster than your bubbles.
Rob “Fishbait” Stewart
22 feet isn’t deep so nitrogen isn’t likely the problem.>>>>> i think it was 225
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