ralph said: <snip> <<<To set the record straight. Kayakers have found dead bodies here just twice in the last decade. This one and one around 1992.>>> <<<I asked Adam Brown, a professional diver who works the entire harbor inspecting piers and repairing them. He said he had run into them from time to time. I asked when was the last time. "Oh, in 1992 and it was under Pier 26!" That's the home of the Downtown Boathouse.>>> Ralph, et al: I read an interview with a NY diver a while back. Basically, the diving specialist has a hell of a job. He must descend to intractable murkiness to search for guns, knives and other "things". They have to wear wet suit gloves with their dry suites for "feel", and often preheat the gloves in a microwave to get a few extra minutes out of the normal 30" maximum down time in winter. There are 30 of them, covering 146 square miles of waterfront, and 576 miles of shoreline, ponds, lakes, etc. They go find or help suicide "jumpers" (usually off the Brooklyn Bridge). They have to search hulls of vessels for bags of contraband; try and find guys in little rubber boats hidden up in the rudder posts of large incoming freighters. They have weapons designed to work in the water, help detectives from 75 precincts, make use of the "Stokes Basket" (which is a device used to keep a body from falling apart during recovery pulling), and get tangled up below surface with old cars, shopping carts and bicycles (which can rip their suits and leak in bacteria rich goodies). Often at the surface, with masks off to communicate, little balls of turd float along and get into their mouths. They can get post-stress counseling, but most reject the offer as the counselors have no bloody idea what the guys do or go through. They do have great times, rescuing grateful families and folks from drowning, etc, but this is often offset by family members calling in a rescue half a hour after the victim goes missing. By the time they get there, they usually can grab the victim from underneath within seconds, but as the people waited too long, all hope is gone. They don't have a nickname for floaters, but do for used condoms: "Coney Island whitefish". BC'in Ya Doug Lloyd (whose idea of pollution here on the west coast is other boaters, not floaters) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Oct 05 2000 - 07:58:40 PDT
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