The Carolinas - Divers at AR 315

Another "How would you react" Rant.


Today me and the old man when out to 315 to get some Spanish and flounder there was about 15 or so boats there which isn't surprising because its a pretty big area to fish. When I first pulled up there was 6-8 boats drifting within 20' of each other around the buoy and another smaller boat (14' max) anchored with two people in it and I noticed the tanks on their boat so I decided to head up to the reef balls a little further up.

Once I started drifting back closer to their boat I noticed that neither of the people were in the boat nor were they flying any dive flag. I thought "wow that's REALLY stupid, diving here with all these boats trolling around that don't know you're here". That didn't bother me too much until I noticed they left their dog in the boat and he was going CRAZY (as you would expect, I mean his owners disappeared underwater in his opinion) then the dog ended up jumping in the water and getting tangled in their anchor line tailings (about 20' of rope that they just let float for someone to wrap their prop with). The boat was an older model V-hull with no swim platform and really tall sides, so the poor thing had no way to get back in so we pulled up our lines and hurried over to get the dog before it drowned and pulled her into our boat and luckily she was a really sweet dog.

Now me and the old man were really pissed, its one thing to dive where all of these boats are fishing and putting your life in danger but putting your dogs life in danger is another. So we drifted around in waiting for them to come up but the dog ended up jumping out of our boat so we pulled her back in and tied her to the console where she couldn't jump out again and got another boat to call the coast guard to take care of these idiots ( I don't even know if they could have done anything but it didn't hurt to call)

Of course the coast guard didn't get out there before they left (I'm sure if I would have put my throw-able in a non-visible location they would have been there...)

I chose not to cause a big scene about the whole ordeal (just trying to have a nice day on the water) but what would you have done given the situation?

I have nothing against divers (I'm a divemaster myself) but these guys..... they were just being stupid.

Wow, some people really make Me wonder what in the H ll are they thinking......

I would have left a note on their boat that they could pick up their dog at the shelter with my phone number on it. When they called I would say I didn't take it to the shelter yet and make arrangements to get the dog back to them.

Next time maybe they will think before doing stupid stuff, maybe not. I would try to explain to them that it is not appropriate to dive (flag up or not) in such a popular fishing spot on the weekend. The main purpose of the AR's is fish attraction for recreational fishermen, not divers.

I would have taken a picture of the boats Reg # and pictures of the boat with them getting out of the water. I would have then turned all that over to the CG along with Marine Patrol.

I do not agree with baypro21 that AR are only for recreational fisherman. No set of individuals has rights to them. They are there for everyone to enjoy. If they didn't want to be around all those fisherman then they would leave and you would also have the same right. They decided to take the risk on diving in such a place.

I do think it was dumb to dive without a flag and they should have at least had the dog tied up so it couldn't jump off the boat.

They may have left the anchor line in the water to tie there dive gear to so they could get out of the water and then raise there gear into the boat

The world is full of stupid people. What they can manage to do that endangers ( or at a minimum annoys) the rest of us never ceases to amaze.

I do not agree with baypro21 that AR are only for recreational fisherman.



I stand corrected. I found and read the executive summary of the 1988 NC artificial reef master plan. It seems divers as well as fishermen are to benefit from the reefs.

What's next? Sailboaters and jet skis having equal rights to the waters? :grin:

I stand corrected. I found and read the executive summary of the 1988 NC artificial reef master plan. It seems divers as well as fishermen are to benefit from the reefs.

What's next? Sailboaters and jet skis having equal rights to the waters? :grin:

Ahhhhaaaaa ahaaaaaa

I have seen a jet ski heading out of both OI and HI decked out with coolers and rod holders.

Blow boats are only good to keep the Coast Guard current on there rescue procedures :jk:

I stand corrected. I found and read the executive summary of the 1988 NC artificial reef master plan. It seems divers as well as fishermen are to benefit from the reefs.

What's next? Sailboaters and jet skis having equal rights to the waters? :grin:

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

The trailing rope is SOP for boat diving. I use one every time and its very handy. I do limit it to 20 feet and tie a fender or my smaller floating dive flag to the end. Your a divemaster and are surprised to see this? If not diving in currents I guess its not needed as much. I dive more than fish. Never had anyone try to chase me away from an AR, but i try to be curtious. Fishing that close to another boat isnt cool with me anyway. Thanks for helping the dog out, hate to see a good dog drown. You got lucky, even good dogs bite when they get scared. Hopefully his owners learned to take better care of him. Other than not using a flag, I dont think they broke any laws?

The trailing rope is SOP for boat diving. I use one every time and its very handy. I do limit it to 20 feet and tie a fender or my smaller floating dive flag to the end. Your a divemaster and are surprised to see this?

They had a mermaid line off of the transom cleat (orange line with orange Fender tied to the end) That was very noticeable and therefore not an issue, but a black 20'+ line floating around isn't the easiest thing to see. (and even then its not that big of an issue because no one should be that close to another boat, but given the situation it was an issue.)

And the anchor tailings were not used to hoist the gear back into the boat or to hold it there without it drifting away, they just picked their gear up out of the water.

The differance is in the details. Sounds like alot of lines out, wonder if the paniked dog kicked them out? You may never get the truth about that. Thanks again for going out of your way to help the dog out.

You usually see a thread like this from the viewpoint of the diver addressing how stupid the fishermen are. Did you say anything to them when you gave the dog back to them? Sounds like someone who I would NEVER dive with...stupid is as stupid does...