I have been steadfastly resisting posting the memes where orcas are saying things like "We didn't not bump the submersible a little teeny bit," because real people died and their survivors are suffering, but know that I am a bad enough person to seriously consider doing so.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
For me, the difference is not that the victims were rich per se, it's that they required rescue from a high risk, optional situation.

To me there's a distinction between accidents that occur while pursuing a non-optional activity and accidents that occur was pursuing a high-risk hobby, or making a decision to ignore safety concerns (such as driving around barricades during a flood and getting stuck, or possibly your trawler in bad weather example). I think that if more people knew they would have to pay in some manner (including a fine) then they might think twice before making some rash decisions. Ideally the payment or fine would be somehow proportional to the amount of effort involved in a rescue and the person's ability to pay.

I feel the same way about ignorant people going out into the backcountry ill-prepared, thinking S&R will save them when they fvck up. If you choose to undertake a highly risky activity of any kind, for your own "life enhancement" rather than because you were doing a job or you had no choice, the tab should be on you if you need public services to get you out of a mess of your own making.

I may not go to hell for my sense of humor, but I’ll surely get to heck.

What a way to go.


I think Canada requires travel tour operators that go to remote Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic for hiking trips to carry rescue insurance. And that goes for other tour operators as well that go to remote areas where there is a high likelihood of injury. I don’t know if U.S. travel tour operators are required to have it.


I can think of a thousand other places that I’d rather visit than the bottom of a deep ocean that’s thousands of feet deep. On all my scuba diving trips, I’ve noticed that the most scenic and interesting dives are in depths of 30-60 feet. I once dove to 100 feet and that’s the deepest I’ve ever gone. Everything that’s interesting to see is right there in 30-60 feet of water. Some of the scuba divers in my club have hyperbaric chamber insurance but I don’t. I don’t do the riskier dives into caves, shipwrecks, and such. Don’t know why anyone would want to risk their life on a dangerous descent to the Titanic. Bragging rights, maybe, so they can say they’ve been there?


At depths of thousands of feet, there really isn’t much to see. It’ll be completely dark at that depth and the only light will come from the sub’s lamps but they’ll only illuminate a small area outside the sub. Even if they got close to the Titanic, what would they see? Not much probably, just a big grey hull. If they were really lucky, maybe they’d see a giant squid which are known to frequent the deeper depths.