Re: Alpha Dive Flag

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: : : : : : : : : Worse than the damage to the wrecks is the : : : : : potential for damage to divers! While diving the : : : : : Herman Hettler 10 days ago, with both alph and : : : : : red dive flags on my boat, I heard an engine and : : : : : looked up. The glass bottom boat was nearly : : : : : overhead! : : : : : I have also noticed, all the tour boat activity : : : : : seems to generate a significant amount of wave : : : : : action in the bay, when the open water is calm. : : : : : Munising has some really wonderful people living : : : : : in one of the nicest spots in the country. Most : : : : : residents really care about their environment and : : : : : their tourist guests. I hope a few don't spoil : : : : : the good thing they've got going. : : : : : I'm interested in hearing other's thoughts, : : : : : whether they are in agreement or not. : : : : : Ted Bruesch : : : : Ted: Do you think you are the only one who wants to see the wreck? : : : : One of our prime concerns on the wreck of the Burmuda is prop wash. We always make : : : : sure that we do not wash the wreck. During our drifts our props are off the wreck totally. : : : : our boat the Miss Munising is 55 feet long and where our viewing wells are located you : : : : could not see the wreck through the wells if our props were over the wreck. We have : : : : also installed bow thrusters on the Miss Munising to give us more control over the wreck. : : : : All of our captains are divers and dive the wrecks that we show on the boat. We also : : : : have been operating a dive charter service here in Munising for over 20 years. : : : : Railing..... The port rail has been down for at least 20 years, long before I started the : : : : glass bottom boat tour. Check the drawing in the submerged cultural resources study , : : : : Pictured Rocks national lakeshore, C. Patrick Labadie, author. Written in 1989. : : : : One of our other concerns is user conflicts. : : : : ......... We have designed our schedule so that there are 3 hr windows between trips for : : : : divers to enjoy the wreck. We do not tell divers they have to be off the wreck, we ask : : : : them to allow us on the wreck for 10 min. every 3 hrs. 99 % of the time we get complete : : : : cooperation. We even comp air if we disturb someone's dive./ : : : : Being divers and licensed captains we have approached dive boats ,with a proper lookout : : : : and at bare steerage speed to see what the status is in their dive. We do this with Polaroid : : : : glasses on and know where you are under water. : : : : visibility.. Vis is no different today than it was before the glass bottom boat tour. Think : : : : about it , how could we run our tour if we couldn't see. During my dive charters I take : : : : out 18 divers at a time and if you are on the wreck the vis goes real fast. 1/2 hour later : : : : the glass bottom boat comes over and the vis is back to normal. We have dove the wreck : : : : directly after the boat goes over and there is no change, no prop wash and no reduced vis. : : : : Munising is still the best place for beginning wreck diving. Ask your self this. Who : : : : makes there living on Munising Shipwrecks? Who is more concerned about preserving : : : : the wrecks. Who buoys the wrecks. I take aprox 400 divers a year to the Burmuda and I : : : : also take about 15,000 people out on the glass bottom boat. Do you think I would let : : : : anyone harm the wreck of the Bermuda? : : : Ted: Just so you know, the alpha flag is not a legal dive flag in Michigan waters. Many are confused on this point. For legal dive flag dimensions and configurations, consult Divers Guide to Michigan, 2nd edition. : : Please note, this man had both types of dive flags and still wasn't safe. : You are correct, but this man has some responsibility for the situation. The tour boat schedule is posted on the mooring buoy, in publications, and at various places in Munising. Yet he decided to dive at a time that would conflict with tour boat operations. Accident? I doubt it. Complicating matters is that this man was apparently flying his flags off his boat. Depending upon the buoy he was using and wind direction, he may have been in violation of the dive flag law as the wreck is 145 feet long and he is required to stay within 100 feet of his flag. : While we may admire this man's independent attitude (a trait shared by many in the dive community), one must wonder why he made the decision to conflict with the tour boat. It is precisely this type of poor decision making that has led to diver regulations. Don't believe me? Try diving a set of dock ruins off Isle Royale, try dragging a magnetometer within a quarter mile of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, try diving the harbor at Fairport outside the posted hours and not paying the $25 per diver per day fee. I could go on and on. : The Great Lakes Diving Council is working on legislation that would remove some of these restrictions but the poor decisions made by this diver will make that initiative more difficult.

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