Spearfishing safety: advice and guidelines

Spearfishing safety: advice and guidelines

Talking about prevention of diving accidents and underwater safety refers, most often, to scuba diving with an air breathing apparatus or rebreather. The most risky injuries in this type of diving are decompression illness and oxygen intoxication, caused by the release of gas in the tissues due to the sudden decrease in water pressure on the body.

The action of the pressure of the water column on the body is one of the main risk factors for underwater activities, and can be responsible for various problems even in free diving. When you dive without breathing, however, the lack of oxygen, which is linked to yet different risks.

Underwater safety: general precautions

According to what reported in the Merck Manual (or MSD), the most widely read medical text in the world, most diving accidents are due to the action of pressure on the body. At 10 meters deep, the diver already experiences a pressure of 2 bars, double that of sea level, which directly affects the volume of gases present in the body.

When you go deeper the amount of dissolved gases in the bloodstream increases, exposing the diver equipped with tanks to the risk of poisoning from nitrogen or oxygen, while at the moment of ascent these gases increase in volume and can be released into the body in the form of "bubbles", causing the so-called decompression sickness.

In freediving, the most common risks are often of another type, but some of the guidelines indicated by the MSD Manual for diving with scuba and scuba can easily be applied to Spearfishing.

The first thing to do to avoid risks, in both cases, is to refrain from diving when circumstances do not allow it, i.e.:

• solo;
• adverse weather conditions or too strong currents;
• after using alcohol or sedatives;
• when the psycho-physical conditions they are not compatible with diving.

This last aspect is particularly important when talking about recreational diving performed by divers who are neither athletes nor professionals: swimming underwater in fact implies a intense physical effort, and risk factors are often hidden in very widespread pathologies and habits, such as states of anxiety or the consumption of alcohol and coffee.

When to avoid diving: medical contraindications

I main risks of free diving are linked to two elements: the effect of pressure on the body and the oxygen deficiency in the blood.

The starting assumption, unavoidable, is that underwater activities require a good physical and mental shape. As reported in the DSM, “divers must have no significant functional cardiovascular or pulmonary disorders and must have adequate aerobic capacity for the type of dive being undertaken".

Furthermore, any disorder that may impair consciousness or judgment is considered a contraindication to diving, along with common pathologies such as bronchial asthma, hernias, gastroesophageal reflux (severe), untreated allergic rhinitis and upper respiratory tract infections.

To these must be added the disturbances they can cause anxiety and panic attacks and more delicate conditions such as those linked to obesity, diabetes or heart failure. Age can also be a limit: children below the 10 years they should not engage in scuba diving, as they cannot fully understand the physics and physiology of safe diving.

In any case, the Divers Alert Network recommends undergoing a self-assessment questionnaire and medical checks required based on the general condition of the diver: every 5 years for divers who have two or more risk factors or are over 45 years of age, every year for those with chronic pathologies or over 65 years of age.

The main dangers in underwater fishing

I main dangers that you may encounter in underwater fishing are:

• Blackout: it is the loss of consciousness due to lack of oxygen, most often caused by excessively demanding or prolonged apneas;
• taravana: It is the equivalent of decompression sickness. It mainly affects divers who go deeper than 20 meters and manifests itself as loss of consciousness, tremors and other neurological symptoms. Risk factors include hyperventilation, continuous diving, excessive muscular effort, too rapid ascent and dehydration;
• barotraumas: they occur in the nasal and paranasal sinuses and are due to sudden changes in pressure and lack of training and competence in compensation techniques. In the worst cases they can lead to laceration of the eardrum;
• accidents with gear, nets and boats: even if we tend not to think about it, freediving often takes place in close proximity to other human activities and is subject to accidents due to external factors such as rocks, misplaced equipment, the presence of tourists or boats or even abandoned fishing nets on which it is possible to get caught.

This type of accident at sea can prove to be very serious, which is why it is very important - before venturing on a scuba diving trip - to acquire the theoretical skills and training necessary to practice adive safely.

The first advice from experts, in this sense, is to become familiar with the discipline by attending a basic freediving course, which in addition to the various breathing and compensation techniques provides knowledge and skills to avoid and possibly deal with diving accidents.

Diving accident prevention: safety guidelines

There are safety guidelines which should be applied to all freedives, especially those dedicated to fishing, which can be very intense from a physical and mental point of view.

By putting together the advice of medical manuals and that of more experienced fishermen, we can draw up a list of principles to follow avoid accidents underwater:

• attend a basic freediving course;
• avoid diving if you are not fit, are taking drugs or have used alcohol;
• never dive alone;
• respect i recovery times (which should last at least twice as long as the dive) and the ascent times to the surface;
• don't push your apneas to the limit, to always have one oxygen supply available in case of problems during the ascent phase;
• drink water between dives, even when you are not thirsty;
• bring with you energy foods such as honey or dried fruit;
• always signal your position with the buoy;
• keep your distance from nets and fishermen;
• rationalize them accessories: during fishing it is important to be able to free yourself from any obstacles, therefore it is a good idea that ropes and wires are not attached to the body and that the belt can be easily released.

When you find yourself in a risky circumstance underwater and without oxygen, not only is it essential to know what to do, but the ability to keep your nerves and act rationally, which can initially be acquired during a preparatory course but which also requires time, training and a lot of experience at sea.