Swimmers Swimmers ADVERTISING Cited for not towing dive flag when wearing mask and snorkel I speak for quite a few swimmers who have been swimming in the Kona bay for decades. Recently the DLNR has taken it upon itself to
Swimmers
Cited for not towing dive flag when wearing mask and snorkel
I speak for quite a few swimmers who have been swimming in the Kona bay for decades.
Recently the DLNR has taken it upon itself to stop swimmers to cite them for swimming in areas outside the five buoys off the pier because they are wearing a mask and snorkel and are not towing a dive flag.
Sounds like a reasonable request, until you really look at the legality of it.
My suspicion is the dolphin tour operators are complaining that swimmers are out there with their clients when they dump literally at times hundreds of “swimmers with masks and fins” in the water to harass the dolphins. They also are considered free divers according to the DLNR’s interpretation of the law, but if the boat is within 100 feet of the “mask and snorkel people,” the boat’s dive flag, which I rarely actually see, is sufficient. I have seen up to 10 to 12 boats in the flotillas, with snorkelers on noodles everywhere. That’s somehow safe?
So, let me try to understand, a swimmer without mask and snorkel does not have nearly the field of sight of the swimmers with masks and snorkels. Swimmers with masks and snorkels can better hear boats in the area, and nonmask swimmers normally can not. The nonmask and snorkel swimmers have the DLNR’s OK to swim anywhere in the bay, according to what they told me.
Swimming is one of Hawaii’s favorite sports. Now, we are forced to drag an apparatus with a dive flag on it out every day when we swim, unless we do not use a mask and snorkel. Imagine how that would look.
All swimmers are sometimes forced to swim outside the line of buoys because the waves are so big we would be thrown into the shallow water very readily. Someone with a mask and snorkel is much more likely to be safe if any kind of trouble hit, because they can breathe and see. But we are now forced to become swimmers with goggles the size of quarters on where we can’t see or hear anything coming, or tow a dive float and flag? So much for the “we need to keep you safe” logic they are giving.
What the?
I’m sure DLNR has some kind of proof a person with a mask and snorkel is more likely to be hit by a boat than a swimmer with nothing protruding out of the water. Not to mention the boat operator’s job is to watch for foreign things (including dolphins, whales or anything living and breathing) in the ocean anyway.
Put the responsibility back where it belongs and find someone else to harass.
Leonora Prince
Kona
