Captains irked by new rule> 4 divers’ deaths motivates OSHA

PORTLAND — An OSHA rule that boat captains are responsible for the safety of sea urchin divers who work from their boats is causing turmoil within the booming industry.

Accidents in Maine waters have killed four urchin divers within the last 11 months.

After a recent death, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited a Jonesport boat owner for alleged safety violations for which it proposed $9,750 in fines.

Timothy Victory has 15 days to contest the penalties arising from the Oct. 16 drowning of University of Maine student Matthew Rice while on his first urchin dive. Victory reportedly will fight the OSHA fine.

Mark Crockett, co-owner of New Way Seafood in Rockland, said he talked with a dozen boat captains about the OSHA regulations. All said the rules would be impossible to comply with.

“They just felt, `Oh, my God, you’ve got to be kidding me,’ ” Crockett said. “There was kind of a panic.”

Although divers and boat captains agree that some basic safety regulations are needed, they say a couple of the OSHA rules could actually make the industry less safe.

They questioned a rule that requires that each diver remain in visual contact with another diver, or be connected to the boat by a line.

Divers and boat captains say they cannot continually do their job and remain in visual contact with other divers. And tethering a diver to the surface could actually make the job more dangerous, they say.

“We’re prepared to cooperate. We want to make it safer, too,” said Joseph Mokry, a longtime urchin diver from South Portland. “But this confrontational approach will only alienate the people they say they want to help.”

Mokry said treating boat operators as employers could actually force divers to work alone — a much more dangerous condition.

“That’s what they’re driving the industry to,” he said. “They’re going to drive people to go alone to circumvent the rules.”

Richard Stiefken, a compliance officer in OSHA’s Augusta office, said several urchin divers and boat owners have told him they could comply with the rules.