Posted on 03/28/2017 9:02:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Edited on 03/28/2017 11:21:02 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The family of a Canadian filmmaker and conservationist who died during a shark filming excursion off the Florida Keys filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday.
Rob Stewart, 37, of Toronto, Canada, died while diving in January off the coast of Islamorada, Florida, to film a follow-up to his 2006 documentary "Sharkwater," which examined the impact of shark hunting on the ocean's ecosystem. He also made a 2013 documentary "Revolution" about environmental collapse and was a wildlife photographer.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcmiami.com ...
Hay, the guy became a renewable resource. Good on ‘im....
Assumption of risk. Next!
Giving your life to “save” the ecosystem. Bet your name won’t be remembered beyond next week.
230 feet is WAY beyond sport diving. And how close together in time were the three dives?
There is no way anyone should attempt a dive of that depth with air tanks so they must have been using mixed gas. I retired my PADI Instructor license long before that technology was readily available so I don’t know either.
Should’ve read Harvey Mackays book. This was preventable...
Diving in the Keys is dangerous and is down-played because of the tourist trade. I’ve been spending time in the Keys now for over seventeen years, and it’s an on-going issue. Not for the unskilled or stupid.
He was hoping to video a sawfish, said to be a skittish critter likely to be scared away by divers' bubbles. So his plan was to use a rebreather (no bubbles). In December, he posted to Facebook “looking for a rebreather dive ninja mid January in Florida for some 300ft dives…”. That's how he hooked up with survivor and defendant Peter Sotis, of Add Helium.
According to this article:
Stewart and Sotis dove the [Queen of Nassau] wreck three times that day. They were the deepest dives of Stewart’s life. The two men surfaced for the final time just after 5 p.m. within sight of the dive boat’s crew members. Stewart gave the OK sign. Sotis, however, appeared shaky as he climbed aboard the boat. Moments later, he blacked out. The crew retrieved bottled oxygen to revive him. In the commotion, they turned their backs to the water, and when they again looked for Stewart in the water, he was gone. The crew radioed for help immediately. Within five minutes, a Navy helicopter was dispatched and Coast Guard cutter Sexton was diverted to the scene, along with a small boat crew and an HH-65 helicopter from Miami.
At least he died doing what he loved best!
If he was just going after sharks, assumed risk. If he was swimming along and they dumped a ton if chum on him, maybe not.
230 feet, definitely a tech dive, using mixed gas (helium replacing nitrogen).
Still, three times to 230 sounds excessive. Very complicated decompression schedule.
RIP, it wasn’t his fault, he was following his divemaster, who barely survived.
That said, it was the divemaster that had responsibility for the dive plan, not the filmmaker who died. Not to mention he was not brought on the boat immediately -- they assumed the affliction of the first diver was not about to affect the second diver, even though they were diving together.
From wikipedia:
An analysis of 164 fatal rebreather accidents documented from 1994 to Feb 2010 by Deeplife,[24] reports a fatal accident rate of one in 243 per year, using a conservative assumption of linear growth of rebreather use and an average of around 2500 active participants over that time. This is a fatal accident rate of over 100 times that of open circuit scuba. The statistics indicate that equipment choice has a dramatic effect on dive safety. ....A further analysis of these rebreather deaths[25] found significant inaccuracies in the original data. Review shows that the risk of death while diving on a rebreather is in the region of 5.33 deaths per 100,000 dives, roughly 10 times the risk of open circuit scuba or horseriding, five times the risk of skydiving or hang gliding, but one eighth the risk of base jumping.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebreather_diving#Maximum_operating_depth
===
Many divers are certified to dive to 330’ and a select few venture further. Join Add Helium to gain an understanding of how to dive deeper than 330’ with a greater understanding of that environment. ....Hosted by Peter Sotis and Claudia Sotis, M.D. on the beautiful island of Curacao.
https://www.addhelium.com/diving
3 times to remove a grapnel? Cut the line hoss!
When engaging in extreme sports
you can expect extreme results.
These are the same folk that would relocate the rattle snake that had but the child in previous article.
He was found on the bottom, 300 feet frm last known location. He was on the surface before disappearing. His first ever 3 dives with Rebreather, the 3rd was his last. Depth 260 feet.
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Stewart and Sotis dove the wreck three times that day. They were the deepest dives of Stewart’s life. The two men surfaced for the final time just after 5 p.m. within sight of the dive boat’s crew members. Stewart gave the OK sign. Sotis, however, appeared shaky as he climbed aboard the boat. Moments later, he blacked out. The crew retrieved bottled oxygen to revive him. In the commotion, they turned their backs to the water, and when they again looked for Stewart in the water, he was gone. The crew radioed for help immediately. Within five minutes, a Navy helicopter was dispatched and Coast Guard cutter Sexton was diverted to the scene, along with a small boat crew and an HH-65 helicopter from Miami.
https://www.outsideonline.com/2154621/rob-stewart-obituary
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