AD 2016 Q3

FROM THE SAFETY STOP
LETTERS FROM MEMBERS
DON’T FEED THE ’CUDA
Stephen Frink’s article “Don’t
Try This at Home” (Publisher’s
Note, Spring 2016) makes good
points about the dangers of
feeding wild animals and about the
consequences of sensationalizing
dangerous behavior. But he misses
one additional point: Hand feeders
train wild animals that food is
attached to divers. It is not hard to
see why this is a really bad idea.
My buddy and I were diving the
City of Washington wreck a few
years ago. As soon as each diver did
a giant stride, a huge barracuda was
right in the diver’s face. My buddy
got a great close-up photo, but we
didn’t know at the time that our
faces were being treated as potential
snacks thanks to feeder training.
— Harvey S. Cohen, Ph.D.,
via email
COURTESY PAT FORD
Here’s the barracuda bite story
Stephen Frink referred to in his
article “Don’t Try This at Home”:
In 1986 we were filming a video
(Dive Pennekamp) for the park, and
they wanted footage to show that
the “dangerous” marine creatures
were not all trying to kill you. I was
feeding “Smokey” from my mouth a
la Capt. Slate. We shot well the first
day and then came back to finish
up. I was descending with a bag of
ballyhoo as Smokey came over. I
usually fed him several free-floating
ballyhoo initially so he’d get calm. I
put out the first ‘hoo and intended
to just float it in the water column,
but I took my eye off the barracuda
and held the bait too long. His front
teeth got my index finger and the
back of my thumb. The thumb
healed up fine, but all the tendons in
my index finger were cut. After two
operations it still doesn’t bend. I was
very lucky that Smoky only nipped
me — I could easily have lost most
of my hand and bled to death before
I could get back to shore.
— Pat Ford, via email
SENIOR DISCOUNT?
In response to the question in the
Spring 2016 issue about aging and
diving (From the Medical Line,
Page 54): There are dive shops that
do discriminate based solely on
age. I ran into this problem during
a 2015 Caribbean cruise with my
wife and grandson. I am a 67-yearold
experienced and active diver
with many certifications, and I’m
in reasonably good health. I do
not take any medications, and I
carry a doctor’s release to scuba
dive. The dive shop’s age limit was
65. I never even got to fill out a
medical questionnaire or present
my certifications; they saw the
birthdate and said I could not dive
with them. To my knowledge,
none of the dive certifying
agencies have an age limit. I would
recommend to any senior diver to
check with a dive operation before
booking dives or a trip.
— Ronald Culbertson,
via email
A RUDE AWAKENING
The point of Stephen Frink’s article
“Fit to Dive?” (Publisher’s Note,
Winter 2016) was vividly brought
home recently. In mid-March I was
on a liveaboard trip in the Channel
Islands off Santa Barbara. Our trip
14 | SUMMER 2016