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If you folks don't think this problem has totally spiraled out of control, read the following article. George was completely right on this one. --------------------------------- Rep. William Delahunt will review the string of fatalities and consider solutions. Cape Cod Times 7-30-99 It may take an act of Congress, but Coast Guard officials and several highly trained, experienced divers all agree that something must be done to stop the dying at the Andrea Doria shipwreck. In the wake of the second diver fatality in a week on Wednesday, and the fifth in 13 months, a senior aide to Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., said the congressman will take a hard look at the situation to see what needs to be done. "People are dying. It ought to be a pretty loud wake-up call to get the facts and move quickly to make recommendations on how to address the problem," said Steve Schwadron. "Obviously the Coast Guard has plenty to do, and we don't want to force new missions on an already-overburdened Coast Guard, at least without giving them the resources. "But the overriding mission of the Coast Guard is public safety on the seas, and there is not much question that we need to act quickly to find out what is going on," he said in an interview yesterday. Delahunt, as co-chairman and founder of the Congressional Coast Guard Caucus, is in an ideal position to guide an inquiry. Diving on the Andrea Doria is considered extremely difficult, and is called "technical" diving because of the advanced training required. Nevertheless, experienced divers have said they think some who make the dive on the Andrea Doria are not adequately prepared. "I think the diving technology is beyond the physicial and mental capabilities of many of these divers," said Robert Higgins, a former commercial diver familiar with dives over 200 feet. Higgins is a civilian with the Coast Guard's Boston headquarters who is compiling data on diver fatalities. Other technical divers agreed, but focused their concerns on the lack of regulations for "recreational" divers, those who even with an advanced certification are not supposed to dive deeper than 130 feet. Currently there are no federal regulations controlling certification requirements for recreational divers. The basic certification program consists of classroom instruction, pool practice, and open water diving. But the actual time involved can range from a weekend for a "resort" certification for a group to more than 30 hours at more rigorous training programs with one-on-one attention. "What needs to happen is that the (dive) training agencies need to be held accountable. The industry is out of control," fumed technical diver and dive shop owner Don Stevens, of Rye, N.H., owner of Atlantic Aqua Sport. Michael Manfredi, a technical diver and owner of Aquarius Diving Center in Buzzards Bay, recommended against the short certification course, because it does not give the student enough experience with the water or the array of gear a diver relies on beneath the surface. But he also expressed concerns about the skills of some technical divers. "My biggest concern is that there are a lot of inexperienced divers out there. I'm not saying they all are, but some who died should not have been out there," he said. The latest victim of the Andrea Doria was 52-year-old Charles J. McGurr, of Bricktown, N.J. He failed to surface from a 245-feet dive to the wreck of the Italian luxury liner, which sank in 1956 following a collision with the Swedish liner Stockholm on a foggy night about 45 miles south of Nantucket. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner's office was to conduct an autopsy to determine cause of death, but no information was available yesterday. McGurr's body was recovered 180-feet down by Daniel Crowell, owner and skipper of the dive charter boat Seeker out of Montauk, Long Island. Another diver died last week after he had made one dive to the wreck, and was about to make another when he suffered an apparent heart attack. Both divers were on the Seeker, which was also the charter boat which carried three of last year's Andrea Doria diving accident victims. Crowell has been the owner and skipper since 1994. Under a previous owner there were nine other diving deaths, although no information was available on which wrecks were involved. Efforts to get comparison information on other fatalities involving other charter boats were not successful yesterday. Officials with the Diver Alert Network in North Carolina did not return telephone messages. Stevens and other technical divers who have dived on the Andrea Doria off the Seeker praised Crowell and his crew as being top notch. "Dan, he's the best," said Stevens. The Seeker is one of several charter vessels bringing divers to shipwrecks. Among other things, the Seeker requires divers fill out a two-page waiver and have it notarized. The waiver explicitly asks if divers are familiar with deep dives in excess of 130-feet, and if they know the dangers involved. Diving on the Andrea Doria is difficult for a variety of reasons, including extreme depths, pressure and decompression requirements, underwater currents, poor visibility, and the danger of becoming trapped or lost inside the wreck. Because of the degree of difficulty, only divers who have completed a rigorous technical diving training program can make such difficult dives. And then, qualified divers may elect to become certified to use a special gas mixture for deep diving, which reduces some risks associated with using regular air under pressure. Both divers who lost their lives this year were technical divers and had the "Trimix" certification for the gas mixture, something the Seeker requires. Nevertheless, they died. "Once a diver is in the water, it's all up to the diver. You can have the best trained crew, provide a solid briefing, talk yourself blue in the face," said Eric Takakjian, of Yarmouthport, a technical diver who has dived on the Andrea Doria and other deep-water wrecks. "When that head goes below the surface, they are going to do what they want to do. It's up to them," he said. Takakjian said that what is happening now at the Andrea Doria is similar to what has been happening at Mt. Everest, where some people not qualified to make the ascent are paying huge sums to join expeditions. "I'm afraid so, that's what's happening with the Doria. And there's no way to stop it," he said. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. 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