Urchin fever

Enough is enough! Who is the Coast Guard and OSHA kidding? With the growing concern over the recent diver fatalities, who is to blame? The media who dramatized the harvest or the certifying agencies pumping hundreds of new sport divers into the depths of the Atlantic? It appears that the state of Maine is passing a bill on a diver competency test to cover their necks.

Competency should have been required before certification was handed out. An experienced diver knows his limits in the surf zone or tides greater than one knot. This cannot be taught through a competency test, in a pool or in some frog pond.

OSHA is trying to regulate a fishery with commercial hard hat rules and regulations. Most of these laws would actually endanger a harvester’s normal routine. They do not see the Atlantic Ocean as it appears to a diver.

A diver is fully aware that scuba diving includes inherent risks of serious personal injury or death. He also knows and understands the scope, nature and extent of the risks involved. Divers voluntarily and freely choose to encounter and assume all such risks and dangers. Stephen M. Patryn Jonesboro