Bad Sport. A couple of Italian
fishermen found a hand grenade,
and on May 22 decided to use it to
enhance their catch by stunning fish.
While fishing in the Mediterranean,
they spotted bubbles they thought
disclosed a school of fish, so one of
the guys pulled the pin and lobbed in
the grenade. Unfortunately, the
bubbles were exhaust from diver
Teodoro Zuccaro’s regulator, and the
blast killed him. His dive partner was
some distance away and was
unharmed. The Associated Press
reported that the fishermen were
apprehended and charged with
manslaughter. They complained
there was no diver flag on the surface
to indicate divers below.
This sounds like another urban
myth. Remember the one about the
dead scuba diver found in a tree after
a forest fire? He supposedly had been
dumped there by a helicopter that
scooped him up in a lake. But if it
gets exposed as such, don’t blame us,
blame the Associated Press.
Bad Time. Several researchers
have found that women report a
greater incidence of decompression
illness than men. Researchers at the
Hyperbaric Medical Center in
Plymouth, Devon, England, analyzed
records of 26 women treated for DCS,
finding that the data “suggest that
women may be at a greater risk of
DCS during the early phase of their
menstrual cycle.” This is surely not
conclusive evidence, so “prospective
data are now being gathered to
further substantiate these findings.”
Bad to the Bone. Dysbaric
osteonecrosis — the “bone rot” of
divers — is not a disease associated
with sport scuba diving according to
most authorities. However, after
reviewing a case of a 36-year-old
female scuba diver, Australian diving
doctor Carl Edmonds is not sure.
Most of her diving was well within
diving limits, with the only unusual
dives being six days of repetitive
diving and one ascent faster than it
should have been. Her pain
progressed over 18 months and she
became so debilitated she eventually
had a total hip replacement due to
dysbaric osteonecrosis. Edmonds says
the case concerns him because he
wonders whether the medical
profession really has the investigative
ability to detect the relationship
between sport diving and “bone rot.”
At the very least, he says, the case
implies that there are hazards in
computer diving and multi-level
repetitive diving.
Six to Zero. If you’re planning a
trip to the Atlantic or Caribbean
hurricane zone this summer — from
Bermuda to the Grenadines — keep
in mind that 1998 is looking like a
normal hurricane year. Colorado
State University professor William
Gray, a respected hurricane
forecaster, predicts that 10 tropical
storms will form in the Atlantic and
Caribbean between June 1 and Nov.
30. He thinks six will become
hurricanes — winds exceeding 74
miles an hour — and two will reach
111 miles an hour or greater. That
makes us wonder where the folks at
Beaufort North Carolina’s Discovery
Diving Company (they take divers to
wrecks in the Atlantic) get their
information when they advertise: “no
hurricanes are forecast for 1998 ... A
dry hot summer.” Hmmm.
The Contact Info. Last issue we
mentioned Divers Equipment Protection
Program’s expanded insurance coverage
for dive and photographic equipment,
They can be reached by phone at
(1-800-788-4096 or 502-454-4152) or
e-mail (innprogrp@aol.com)