Orange County Register

 10 Comments

• Mike Hawk says:

  January 10, 2009 at 9:54 pm

  Sharky but noble endeavour, thank you.
• Jeff says:

  January 12, 2009 at 3:12 pm

  The Los Angeles Times version of this story states that these divers “relied on tanks filled with a special nitrous oxide mixture that enabled them to spend more time at the bottom.”

  God! If they were using Nitrous Oxide, they are probably still down there. I hope everyone is alright.
• Phil Garner says:

  January 12, 2009 at 5:08 pm

  At least the Times article didn’t mention the oxygen tanks as the media usually does. Thanks to Pat Brennan for a great read, and thanks to the members and volunteers of the Ocean Defenders Alliance for their wonderful efforts. For years they have been removing derelict lobster traps along Laguna Beach. Last year they expanded their efforts to include abandoned nets.
• Sean S says:

  January 12, 2009 at 5:51 pm

  I just would like to know what was this special gas..I was reading the article and 150 is pretty deep to be doing that type of work as an amateur diver.
• Dr. Bill Bushing says:

  January 12, 2009 at 8:10 pm

  Thanks to Pat Brennan and the OC Register for giving this important subject of ghost nets and their danger to marine life and divers coverage. If such nets were “discarded” on Half Dome or over the redwoods, they would elicit an immediate reaction by the public with demands to get rid of them. Kudos to Kurt Lieber and ODA as well as our local Catalina divers who were involved in this phase of the net removal from the Infidel. Too bad the owners of the vessel weren’t required to render the wreck safe for marine life since its sinking appears to have been due to a careless act of greed.

  As for the nitrous oxide tanks mentioned in the LA Times article… my dentist used to use those. I got quite a laugh out of them since I greatly contributed to my dentist’s wealth!
• mike r says:

  January 13, 2009 at 1:35 pm

  They were most likely diving with enriched air-nitrox. Since there is less nitrogen in this air it is somewhat safer as it allows the diver to stay down at deeper depths longer and reduces the risk of decompression sickness. Simply put…it can be safer.
• Kevin says:

  January 13, 2009 at 3:53 pm

  Though the ODA has a noble cause, they are not as safe as they claim. During a presentation in October by the groups founder, Kurt Lieber was questioned by a commercial diver. He found that the ODA did not require volunteers to submit to a medical physical as required by most organizations that use volunteer divers. They also had no liability insurance for the volunteer divers. Finally, the ODA was operating in depths exceeding 100 ft and did not have a decompression chamber within 5 minutes as required in OSHA DIRECTIVE NUMBER: CPL 02-00-143:

  http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=DIRECTIVES&p_id=3449

  1. 29 CFR 1910.424(b)(1) and (b)(2). The limits for SCUBA diving are more restrictive than for surface-supplied air diving or mixed-gas diving (see Appendix H). The maximum depth for SCUBA diving is 130 fsw (see 29 CFR 1910.424(b)(1)). A decompression chamber is required (i.e., available within 5 minutes from the dive location) when diving deeper than 100 fsw, or when diving outside of the no-decompression limits (see 29 CFR 1910.424(b)(2)).

  One can debate weather or not the ODA is actually engaging in “commercial diving”, but at a minimum, they should provide adequate liability insurance for their volunteers.
• Phil Garner says:

  January 14, 2009 at 9:34 am

  ODA is a grassroots organization. The divers are all volunteers, not commercial divers. The OSHA regs do not apply here. Yes, it would be wonderful if they had a chamber, hardhat divers doing all the work with safety divers and a topside crane to pull the entire net up. Unfortunately, these cost money…lots of money. There are no government agencies set up to do trash removal from the ocean. The commercial fishing fleets are not required to clean up their mess. The only people who are out there doing this work are divers who care enough about the ocean to make these risky dives.
  ODA os a non-profit organization, and if you really want them to be able to follow all of the requirements of a commercial dive orginazation perhaps you would be willing to donate time or money to help them out.
• jason kenny says:

  January 16, 2009 at 12:05 am

  Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
• Jay says:

  January 16, 2009 at 1:07 pm

  I think I was at the presentation by Kurt discussed above. I agree that they are not commercial divers. But there are a couple scenarios that were discussed and Kurt did not have answers. Example: Kurt was asked who would be liable if a runaway lobster pot on a lift bag were to strike a boat at the surface. He had no answer as to weather or not ODA had liability insurance to cover the diver who attached the lift bag to the pot. I understand that the funding is bleak in the world of non-profits, but there is a minimum amount of legal considerations that need to be addressed. Also, Santa Monica Baykeepers have a required physical for their volunteers. Adapting this requirement would cost ODA no money and spare it from the liability of an accident involving a diver with an undisclosed medical condition. I support the work the ODA has done. They are doing a service that no one else is willing to do. I realize that they are a underfunded grassroots organization, but at a minimum, they need to hold a basic insurance policy to cover their operations. Kurt could not clarify as to weather or not they had liability insurance.
• Jason Manix says:

  February 1, 2009 at 11:30 am

  Greetings concerned ocean friends, i would like to introduce myself. my name is Jason Manix. I appreciate all the concern about ODA divers and efforts to remove abandoned ocean debris. Please realize what we do is not “up for discussion” in an open forum about the F/V Infidel. Also lets keep in mind the whole reason for Ocean Defenders Alliance is not to have volunteer, commercial, tech or recreational divers on the ready, the unfortunate reason why Kurt does this is because owners and insurance companies are not cleaning up their sunken and hazardous wrecks. The main thrust of Kurt’s efforts is to raise awareness to the issue: YOUR BOAT SINKS, YOU WILL BE RESPONSABLE FOR THE CLEAN UP EFFORTS, SECURING OF HAZARDS AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS IT CAUSES AND THE MARINE LIFE IT HARMS. Try to keep this in mind when a story about the oceans and these kinds of issues are read about. I had given 12 dvd’s I shot of the killing nets to multiple agencies that do this kind of work and for over 2 years no one did anything about it. The dvd was given to Kurt prior to Christmas in 2008 and in less than 2 weeks we had nets on the surface. That is the truly amazing part. As far as the nitrous oxide, if you don’t know it’s laughing gas. That being the gas in the story comes from a slight error by the paper, and a retraction has been printed. He submitted the correct info to the story and the editor the typeset didn’t recognize the word and it was automaticly corrected and later not cought by someone who knew better. I was only puzzled for a moment after reading it and hope people don’t obsess much and dissect the story knowing the gas used was Nitrox, only a couple extra letters were used. Last but not least I cannot say enough about the La Times article and the fact they got the story out to more people than just the locals that dive the Infidel, but it was not a dangerous dive with trouble around every turn. As the dive leader and organizer of the Catalina crew safety was my primary concern and thus including my girlfriend Cinde MacGugan. The paper wanted a “bite” for the readers to be excited about, and to keep them interested. All of the words Cinde said were told to the reporter, very quickly 10 minutes prior to the dive, but in a different order and not so exciting. She took a huge hit for the team by not being concerned with the drama, just that people need to be aware and that someone needs to be responsable for the mess that is theirs. Thank you readers for the input on the article and spin offs of the original text. Let’s not loose focus on the bad guys and the trash that is out of sight and out of mind. Last but not least any questions reguarding safety should be directed to me about the Infidel, or any other dive projects for ODA. Anyone wanting contact info it’s jasonmanix@yahoo.com. I encourage you to “get involved” about your mother ocean.