Madison Oxygen Bottle Warning

[TracyN]

Hey guys. We came out of a dive at Madison yesterday only to find that our oxygen bottles were missing. We had them inside the cavern and there were a lot of swimmers and free divers there. Fortunately I didn't have any deco so I surfaced and raised some hell to find out who took our bottles. I told them that it was not cool to take out diver's tanks and that by doing that they could have killed one of us. I made sure they knew I was serious. Finally a little boy spoke up and said that there were 4 men with masks and snorkels that went down there and grabbed the bottles. I asked him where they put them and he pointed to a big stump in the basin. I looked and both of our bottles were there. Someone had huffed some oxygen out of mine but my buddies was fine. Then I made a point that these bottles have pure oxygen and that you can die from breathing them at depth.

Moral of the story is, take your deco bottles to the stop sign. I do believe the ranger kicked the guys out of the park. I wonder if they can make a warning sign and put it down by the water warning swimmers not to take any scuba tanks they see on the bottom

[MarkR]

Seems like this issue keeps resurfacing. Sounds like there needs to be some pro-active measures taken to try and stop this before somebody gets killed. I might even suggest potential liability for divers it some kids gets killed breathing off your tanks. ..The whole 'attractive nuisance' argument. I can easily see cave divers getting sued if some 12yr old kid with a snorkel and light grabs your deco tank and decides to look around, leading to their death.

*Taking drop tanks further in might help. Does that potentially take them past MOD?

**Installing lock-downs might prevent tanks from swimming off, but might not stop some kid from sipping off your tank.

***Maybe posting signs at the surface? Stating "tampering or removal of life support equipment can result in death" .. "punishable by manslaughter, reckless/malicious endangerment" etc.

Kicking those goons out of the park is a good start, but heck, they just stole several hundred dollars worth of gear and could have killed somebody!

[Aotus]

I think a sign is a really good idea.

Glad everyone came out ok.

[tstormdiver]

*Taking drop tanks further in might help. Does that potentially take them past MOD?

I have no problem with taking an O2 cylinder below MOD. I do it in Ginnie & Little River (leave it at the reel/ gold line tie off) all the time. I just know I absolutely can not breathe it until I get to 20 ft. It is not rocket science.

[JohnnyC]

People that take tanks should be set on fire. After their kneecaps have been broken.

The problem is that people just don't "get it." I agree a sign is a start, but ultimately I think the only real solution will be putting them out of reach of the idiots.

[DeputyTom]

There's liability on both sides when tanks are placed near a cave entrance where swimmers/snorklers/freedivers could grab them. The only possible solution I see that could work is to place tanks further in the cave like suggested.

[cerich]

There's liability on both sides when tanks are placed near a cave entrance where swimmers/snorklers/freedivers could grab them. The only possible solution I see that could work is to place tanks further in the cave like suggested.

"oversight" in a ghillie suit is not an alternative?

[Benthic]

There's liability on both sides when tanks are placed near a cave entrance where swimmers/snorklers/freedivers could grab them. The only possible solution I see that could work is to place tanks further in the cave like suggested.

Surely you're not suggesting that if I put my deco tank inside the cave and someone swims in, breathes from it, and hurts themselves for some reason (over expansion injury, high pO2, etc) that *I* bear some responsibility for their injury...are you?

Brian

[aquadog196]

I think the lesson here is that we have to take bottles like this out of range from the public. Then it is our responsibility to dive the mix safely. Making a big issue with the park management is most likely not in the long run to our benefit.

[TracyN]

We dove Madison again today and it seems people can't read signs. There are signs all over posting no jumping from the rocks and several people were still doing it. I don't think a sign stating not to take divers tanks out of the water would do any good,lol! Taking them to the stop sign is the way to go.