November 08, 2011
By David Conway
Two national divers' groups, the Divers Alert Network® (DAN®) and the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA) earlier this year teamed up with the National Safe Boating Council (NSBC) and the United States Coast Guard (USCG), to produce a short television public service announcement (PSA) on dive flag awareness. The PSAs are intended to alert the public—divers and non-divers—to the need for and proper use of dive flags as a means of indicating the presence of divers in the water. If these PSAs or anything can be done to encourage boaters to be more cautious when they see a dive flag, then it's all time and money well spent.
FS members constantly tell stories of close calls and worse in the Diver's Corner in the FS Forum. You can get an idea of the need for safety from one thread alone, started by FS member mustang39 earlier in the fall. Check it out here.
You can view the PSA on AlertDiver.com as part of a new article offering reminders and tips on boat diving safety.
