Talk about blaming the victim!
Dive industry resists tougher standards after snorkeller stranded
THE dive industry has criticised an American tourist who was left stranded on the Great Barrier Reef off Port Douglas on the weekend and resisted pressure to toughen safety standards.
Snorkeller Ian Cole, 28, said he was afraid of drowning after being left behind at Michaelmas Cay on Saturday in an incident similar to that of the Lonergans more than a decade ago.
Mr Cole said regulations should be tightened to remove the possibility of human error, after an inexperienced staffer incorrectly crossed his name off the afternoon headcount list of the day-trip's 70 passengers.
However, Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators executive director Col McKenzie, speaking for dive operator Passions of Paradise, said standards were already tough enough.
"There's no legislating against stupidity," Mr McKenzie said.
"The staff member signed him off as being back on board the boat . . . breaching Workplace Health and Safety requirements.
But it's also the responsibility of the individual. Why is he in the water 25 minutes after he was supposed to be back on the boat? This guy was never in any danger."
The staff member, apparently a French backpacker who had been working for Passions of Paradise for three months, has been sacked.
Workplace Health and Safety is investigating.
After realising he had been left behind, Mr Cole swam to another dive boat, about 30 metres away. He said he had "panicked a bit".
"I had already been in the water for two hours and I was tired," he said. "At that point, I needed a lifesaver."
Mr McKenzie said the dive operator was a world-class company, had been operating for 22 years and had carried 400,000 passengers without incident.
Industry standards were tightened after the 1998 disappearance of American couple Thomas and Eileen Lonergan, who were accidentally abandoned on the Agincourt Reef, off Port Douglas, by a dive operator. They have never been found.
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