Spearfisher dies in QLD

[Swindells]

Spear fisherman dies on Queensland reef

06:34 AEST Wed Sep 23 2009
2 hours 4 minutes ago

Queensland police have interviewed the passengers and crew of a fishing vessel after a man died while spear fishing at North West Reef, off Gladstone.

The 20-year-old man was half way through a five day fishing charter.
At around 7.50am (AEST) on Tuesday he and two other passengers went snorkelling and spear fishing at North West Island, 75km off Gladstone in southeast Queensland.
When the man failed to return to the dinghy at 11am a search was commenced and he was located on the sea floor.
He was returned to the vessel and CPR was applied without success.
The vessel returned to the Gladstone Marina and the man was pronounced dead at the Gladstone Hospital.

Sad, i wonder what happened.

[kokomo]

just add this to the blackout/samba thread

[finding_time]

Yep shallow water blackout! What basically happens is that you need a certain amount of oxygen in the air to breath and remain concious about 14% at sea level or 1 atmosphere or a partial pressure of .14 (1atmosphere x .14 of o2) now if you dive to a depth of 10m your now at 2 atmosphere so you can remain concious and functioning with an oxygen level of .07% ( 2 atmospheres x 0.07 % O2) The deeper you go the less oxygen you need because the pressure is higher!

Back to the diver, he takes a breath at the surface of air 21% O2 and dives down the longer he stays down the more his body motabiolizes that 02 but as he's increased the pressure he actually needs less O2 to function so he's fine But he has to come up and when he gets near the surface the pressure decreases so the partial pressure of O2 decreases quite rapidly as well and if it get below .14 you start to get into the danger zone of passing out and if you pass out under water you quite often drown unless some one pulls you out! Warning!!! The better you get at freediving the longer you train yourself to resist the urge to breath the higher your chances of getting a shallow water blackout , there is no way to avoid the blackout your best bet is to dive in a group with a good lookout and a great buddy who's aware of the issues!!

Partial pressure of O2 also works the other way and is why moutain climbers have trouble, the air at the top of mount everest has an O2 content of 21% the whole Atmosphere does and it really annoys me when poeple say the is less O2 in the air up there , there wrong there is just way less pressure! Instead of the being 1 atmosphere there is about .66 of 1 atmosphere so .66 X .21 of O2 = about .14% which is why climbers have trouble!

Ian

[bugman]

That is tragic news. And to think we we all there just a few weeks ago.

That's why I'll never have issues with SWB Ian, I'm too fat and out of condition to dive very deep at the moment. The trout laughed at me last trip.

Brett

[finding_time]

I'm sure they were not laughing AT you mate! It was probably a nervous laugh because they were soooo scared!!!

Ian

[kokomo]

Findingtime although i agree with you that SWB and sambas are dangerous..

your science is incorrect..

you can and do have blackouts/sambas at any depth including pool training. it is incorrect and dangerous advise to tell someone that if they dont dive deep they cant have a blackout.

I have had sambas doing static training at 0m's deep.

your blood O2 saturation which is critical does not chance as you change depth... yes the volume in your lungs does change as you describe but this has NOTHING to do with blackout or sambas

the guy that recently died at long reef was an experienced spearo that could dive much deeper than the 8m water he had the fatal Black out in.

you must always dive with a buddie... no matter how deep you dive.. no matter how good or bad you are... no matter how fit or unfit you are.

[finding_time]

think you misunderstood my post Kokomo SWB occours when the partial pressure of O2 drops below .14 period you can pass out breathing any air where the O2 content is less than 14% on the surface and this quite often happens in enclosed spaces (pontoons are a prime example) of course it can happen in a pool it will alway happen in the top 10m of water this is where you get the greatest change in air pressure it is a 100% increase between the surface and 10m and this is the issue. You can blackout simply by holding your breath long enough as you metabolize the O2 and drop the level in your system BUT the greatest chance of this happening is when you go deeper and increase the pressure significantly this allows you to stay longer because the increased pressure is increasing your Partial pressure of O2 so your breath is actually going further but when you surface you will strip that O2 back out of your blood as you surface. Anytime you stay to long freediving at depth or work to hard down there( eg unsnagging a fish) your pushing the boundry!!! Mate your O2 saturation does change as you increase pressure and changes as you use up your O2 if the saturation didn't change people wouldn't pass out. I cannot believe you dont know this, if you want me to get real technical with my post i will but i am right. he above forms the basis of mixed gas diving but it still pertains to the breath you hold in your lungs I have done dives where i've only had 5% O2 in my mix and needed a travel mix till i got to 20meters so i could breath it. Pressure and O2 dont mix real well if you have to low a PPO2 (partial pressure) and you'll passout and to high a PPO2 and you'll have a fit and drown!! I've seen poeple have swb's and also seen deaths from it and there generally all the same there comming up from the bottom and in the last 10m but more likely 5m they passout , why there ? The pressure is comming of and the Partial pressure of O2 in the brain is falling ( cerebral hypoxia) once it get to low you passout and no amount of training will help with this! as you say dive with a buddy!!

IAN

Ian

[kokomo]

I dont misunderstand your post.. If reading from a beginners point of view it can be taken totally the wrong way.

it does not 'ALWAYS' happen in the top 10m's. I know of numerous cases of deep water blackouts.

your advice and (science) is misguided and dangerous when written the way you do

[finding_time]

Not at all Kokomo in all post i advised to dive with a buddy!!!! But i'll post this link that's may explain it better! Note i have been refering to Shallow water blackout but it seem the catagory is divided into 2 sections or subsets 1. shallow water blackout where the diver doesn't go deeper than 10m and 2. deepwater blackout where the diver does go deeper. Shallow water blackout it seems is now more related to hyperventilating , what we have been talking about in this post i believe is the deepwater blackout and is most definately related to PPO2! I believe your assumtion that deepwater blackouts occour in deepwater is also wrong they occur in the last 10m , it all about the pressure drop! anyway read the link!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_water_blackout

[finding_time]

Ps.
I think calling the phenomea a quirky name like samba and mystifying it is silly , call it what it is so people can reserch it privately , do they teach you about his in the spearo's clubs?

[finding_time]

[quote=kokomo;1076291]Findingtime although i agree with you that SWB and sambas are dangerous..

your science is incorrect.. No it's not it's spot on !

you can and do have blackouts/sambas at any depth including pool training. it is incorrect and dangerous advise to tell someone that if they dont dive deep they cant have a blackout.

I have had sambas doing static training at 0m's deep. No you passed out because you didn't breath, differant situation Read this its not related to diving but hypoventilating and differant from the topic of both threads!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shallow_water_blackout

your blood O2 saturation which is critical does not chance as you change depth... yes the volume in your lungs does change as you describe but this has NOTHING to do with blackout or sambas Totally totally wrong read the link

the guy that recently died at long reef was an experienced spearo that could dive much deeper than the 8m water he had the fatal Black out in. Of course he could but how long did he stay down at 8m and how hard did he work these are the factors!

you must always dive with a buddie... no matter how deep you dive.. no matter how good or bad you are... no matter how fit or unfit you are.Totally totally agree[/quote]

Dont call them samba's , blackout is the term silly names just confuse the issue!

Ian

[finding_time]

Found a good post that is worth a read for all free divers, there are some great tip on staying alive

http://www.apneamania.com/code/page.asp?pageID=4

Ian

[nigelr]

Sincere sympathy and commiserations to all family and loved ones.

[warti]

You MUST NEVER hyperventilate in any case. SWB can happen anywhere anytime not just as a direct result from hyperventilation. Yes the pressure in your lungs eases on the way up letting the blood flow with higher CO2 flow to the brain telling it to have a little sleep. Read up on the mammalian effect in humans. Go do a Ray Powell course, join a spearfishing club, a little information is more dangerouse than alot. Just my two cents, feel free to fire back.

[finding_time]

Totally agree Warti, in fact there too differant events , hyperventilation blackout is one thing and SWB is caused by a rapid drop in pressure as is a differant syndrome! They both result in drowning but to call them both Samba's is wrong! That last link i posted is really good!

Ian