Diving safety in fish farming

Abstract

The recent court judgment in the case of a fish farm diver who was awarded more than €500,000 in compensation raises important questions about diving safety standards in Malta’s aquaculture industry. Frederick Catania was left paralysed from the waist down and suffered a 75 per cent disability after ascending from a depth of 71 metres while diving on air. This goes against long-established guidelines in the global diving industry that specify what gases are to be used beyond a certain depth and what measures need to be taken to prevent decompression sickness. The higher the proportion of oxygen in a gas mix, the more dangerous it is as one dives deeper. Hence, even though safety factors and nitrogen narcosis make it inadvisable to go to the limit, air (containing 21 per cent oxygen) should only be used up to a maximum depth of 56 metres. This is because the higher the pressure, the more likely it is for oxygen to impair neural function and cause convulsions and subsequent drowning.