BAD NEWS March 2026
Upcoming Events:
April 26, 2026 - U/W Egg Hunt at Mammoth Lake sponsored by Lunarfins and BAD
August ?, 2026 - Scuba Poker at Mammoth Lake sponsored by Lunarfins and BAD
October ?, 2026 - Underwater Pumpkin Carving at Mammoth Lake sponsored by Lunarfins and BAD
Cozumel Diving Accident Sparks Blame Game: Manuel Zepeda, a popular Cozumel divemaster, was struck by the Maranatha 4 at Yucab reef last July, suffering serious injuries to his leg, knee, and ankles, and is on a long road to recovery. At the time, it was reported that Zepeda, leading six divers, inflated his red ascent buoy upon surfacing. Seeing the speeding boat coming, he deflated his BC and pushed a diver close to him out of the way of the boat's two propellers. Maranatha 4, not respecting the four-knot speed limit at diving and snorkeling reefs, ran over Zepeda, who was regarded as a hero for his sacrifice. As a result of the accident, three boats with the same owner as Maranatha 4 were seized by authorities Now, Fernán Salazar, the owner of the Maranatha 4 and the leader of the boat operators in Cozumel, is blaming Zepeda, saying that the divemaster did not deploy a surface marker buoy and surfaced 300 yards from his dive boat. We have reported many incidents in Mexico of divers getting hit by boats owned by influential people. It seems the cases get buried, and the injured divers fail to achieve justice.
Aussie Dive Operator Fined for Leaving Divers Adrift: Perth Diving Academy has been fined roughly US$14,000 following an investigation into an incident in March 2025, when two divers were left behind by the dive boat Wildcat. The pair surfaced to see their dive boat on its way back to Perth, leaving them drifting two-and-a-half miles offshore after a dive near Rottnest Island. The brothers inflated a surface marker buoy to signal the dive boat, but it apparently ran over the buoy and severed the diver’s SMB line before it set off without them. They were adrift for around an hour before being rescued by a passing ferry, sustaining injuries while being taken aboard a vessel not designed for divers. Wildcat returned after approximately 95 minutes and took one injured diver aboard.
Hollis 2000 LX Regulator Recalled: Huish Outdoors has received reports of internal components within some Hollis 200LX regulator second-stages separating or fracturing before or after a dive. Some units may fail if the second stage is dropped or struck on the adjustable inhalation knob. In these cases, damage to the inlet tube assembly could render the second stage non-functional. While Hollis says no incidents have been reported during an active dive, this condition could pose a drowning hazard if it were to occur while in use. Do not dive with the affected regulator until Huish corrects the problem.
The Saga Continues: The affidavit of the arresting officer in the case of 12-year-old Dylan Harrison's death states that dive instructor William Armstrong was on land without diving gear when Dylan Harrison drowned and gave contradicting statements to investigators on his location when first responders arrived. It also states that the child was improperly weighted before she submerged. Armstrong, who was Harrison's scuba instructor, a member of a dive recovery team, and a peace officer, had a duty to act in case of emergency. He admitted to being awake for 29 hours and working three jobs before Dylan's tragic death. Armstrong was arrested on February 6. The Dylan Harrison Law Suit Filing
Little Cayman Shark Bites Photographer: Berkley White, founder of Backscatter, the California-based underwater photo equipment supplier, was working at Little Cayman's Nassau Grouper Spawning Aggregation site off Little Cayman, after sunset on February 6, when a juvenile tiger shark bit him on the thigh. He sustained "relatively minor puncture wounds" that a nurse treated at Little Cayman Beach Resort before he was flown to Georgetown. Thousands of endangered Nassau grouper assemble off the western tip of Little Cayman after the February full moon to spawn, an annual aggregation, which also draws the attention of reef sharks. The bite was described as a "momentary mistake by the shark."
Don't Leave Your Dive Boat Unattended: This was the harsh lesson learned in January by two Western Australian divers who surfaced about three miles off Mindarie, a suburb of Perth, only to find their boat wasn't where they'd anchored it. It was gone. Ryan Chapman and his buddy assumed it had sunk. After an hour and a half, floating helplessly, they managed to flag down a passing fishing boat, which actually took them back to their boat, drifting more than a mile away. They climbed in, returned to the dive site, and went diving. Chapman later said he now realized how important it was to leave someone with the boat when they went diving. Duh.
Ascend Slowly from Every Dive: An inquest in the UK in January into the death of a 68-year-old experienced British diver who made a rapid ascent from the wreck of the P29, a former East German minesweeper, in Malta in October 2024, found that Darrel Pascoe suffered a pulmonary barotrauma (lung over-expansion injury). He was only three minutes into the dive, and the cause of his uncontrolled ascent has not been determined. The inquest heard that Pascoe had not dived for 18 months before his vacation, and had not provided a medical certificate from a medical practitioner confirming fitness to dive, as is a statutory requirement in Malta.
Is Dive Gear Getting Expensive? So it seems, if the recent robbery of Force-E Scuba in Boynton Beach (FL) by two knuckleheads is anything to go by. Justin Malik Simmons, 29, and Anne Elizabeth Izatt, 25, face charges after a store assistant was injured by their getaway car. Simmons had grabbed four BCs worth up to $10,000 but dropped three when tackled by a staff member. The getaway car turned out to be registered to Izatt's father. After scuba equipment was used in a restaurant robbery in Disney Springs in September, maybe untraceable stolen scuba gear is achieving a unique desirability among Florida's criminal fraternity. Keep an eye on yours.
Aussie Dive Operator Fined for Leaving Divers Adrift: Perth Diving Academy has been fined roughly US$14,000 following an investigation into an incident in March 2025, when two divers were left behind by the dive boat Wildcat. The pair surfaced to see their dive boat on its way back to Perth, leaving them drifting two-and-a-half miles offshore after a dive near Rottnest Island. The brothers inflated a surface marker buoy to signal the dive boat, but it apparently ran over the buoy and severed the diver’s SMB line before it set off without them. They were adrift for around an hour before being rescued by a passing ferry, sustaining injuries while being taken aboard a vessel not designed for divers. Wildcat returned after approximately 95 minutes and took one injured diver aboard.
Hollis 2000 LX Regulator Recalled: Huish Outdoors has received reports of internal components within some Hollis 200LX regulator second-stages separating or fracturing before or after a dive. Some units may fail if the second stage is dropped or struck on the adjustable inhalation knob. In these cases, damage to the inlet tube assembly could render the second stage non-functional. While Hollis says no incidents have been reported during an active dive, this condition could pose a drowning hazard if it were to occur while in use. Do not dive with the affected regulator until Huish corrects the problem.
The Saga Continues: The affidavit of the arresting officer in the case of 12-year-old Dylan Harrison's death states that dive instructor William Armstrong was on land without diving gear when Dylan Harrison drowned and gave contradicting statements to investigators on his location when first responders arrived. It also states that the child was improperly weighted before she submerged. Armstrong, who was Harrison's scuba instructor, a member of a dive recovery team, and a peace officer, had a duty to act in case of emergency. He admitted to being awake for 29 hours and working three jobs before Dylan's tragic death. Armstrong was arrested on February 6. The Dylan Harrison Law Suit Filing
Little Cayman Shark Bites Photographer: Berkley White, founder of Backscatter, the California-based underwater photo equipment supplier, was working at Little Cayman's Nassau Grouper Spawning Aggregation site off Little Cayman, after sunset on February 6, when a juvenile tiger shark bit him on the thigh. He sustained "relatively minor puncture wounds" that a nurse treated at Little Cayman Beach Resort before he was flown to Georgetown. Thousands of endangered Nassau grouper assemble off the western tip of Little Cayman after the February full moon to spawn, an annual aggregation, which also draws the attention of reef sharks. The bite was described as a "momentary mistake by the shark."
Don't Leave Your Dive Boat Unattended: This was the harsh lesson learned in January by two Western Australian divers who surfaced about three miles off Mindarie, a suburb of Perth, only to find their boat wasn't where they'd anchored it. It was gone. Ryan Chapman and his buddy assumed it had sunk. After an hour and a half, floating helplessly, they managed to flag down a passing fishing boat, which actually took them back to their boat, drifting more than a mile away. They climbed in, returned to the dive site, and went diving. Chapman later said he now realized how important it was to leave someone with the boat when they went diving. Duh.
Ascend Slowly from Every Dive: An inquest in the UK in January into the death of a 68-year-old experienced British diver who made a rapid ascent from the wreck of the P29, a former East German minesweeper, in Malta in October 2024, found that Darrel Pascoe suffered a pulmonary barotrauma (lung over-expansion injury). He was only three minutes into the dive, and the cause of his uncontrolled ascent has not been determined. The inquest heard that Pascoe had not dived for 18 months before his vacation, and had not provided a medical certificate from a medical practitioner confirming fitness to dive, as is a statutory requirement in Malta.
Is Dive Gear Getting Expensive? So it seems, if the recent robbery of Force-E Scuba in Boynton Beach (FL) by two knuckleheads is anything to go by. Justin Malik Simmons, 29, and Anne Elizabeth Izatt, 25, face charges after a store assistant was injured by their getaway car. Simmons had grabbed four BCs worth up to $10,000 but dropped three when tackled by a staff member. The getaway car turned out to be registered to Izatt's father. After scuba equipment was used in a restaurant robbery in Disney Springs in September, maybe untraceable stolen scuba gear is achieving a unique desirability among Florida's criminal fraternity. Keep an eye on yours.