Along the Northern California coast, there is a place called Maverick's. This is where you'll find some of the biggest names in surfing, and some of the biggest waves to be tamed; each winter, Maverick's holds and invitational tournament - that's right, if they don't invite you, then you can't get in.
In past years, the staff, and photographers at the Maverick's invitational event were all part of the safety crew, all connected by radio, so that they could all direct whoever was closest to move in and rescue any surfers who were in trouble. However, in 2008, the NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) became a part of the picture, enforcing a ban on personal watercraft in the area, as part of the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary, one of the NOAA's pet projects.
Because of the NOAA ban, the entire system for making contact, and maintaining a safety crew at Maverick's was broken down. A large number of surfers opposed the ban in the first place, citing safety issues, but the NOAA passed it, anyway. This meant that, 2 years after the ban went into effect, there was no new safety apparatus in place to replace the highly efficient safety system from before.
On Saturday, the surfers were in closer to shore than usual, because of smaller than expected waves, when, suddenly, a set of 25 foot tall ocean swells were spotted moving in. The surfers frantically tried to paddle out to sea far enough to safely catch the waves without being caught in the froth, but a few didn't make it. Jacob Trette, age 30, was one of those.
Trette was sucked over the falls by the first wave, driving him underwater. When he finally surfaced, another wave was already crashing down on his position, forcing him back underwater, and driving his body through the rocky reefs.
One of the photographers, Russell Ord, saw that some of the surfers were in dire need of help, and took his jet ski out into the waters to aid those who needed it. he got one surfer, Alex Bottello, and pulled him out of the danger area. It was then that Ord saw Trette, floating face-up in the water. Ord zipped over, and jumped in to get Trette onto the rescue sled behind his jet ski, and rushed him in to the shore.
Jacob Trette was taken to the hospital, where he was placed in an induced coma. Trette has many injuries, not the least of is to his brain, due to lack of oxygen for too long a time. The hospital has reduced his body temperature, in an effort to keep his body from requiring as much oxygen, and hopefully saving him any additional injury.
Maverick's used to have a very efficient system in place to help prevent just this sort of incident from having such horrific consequences, but the NOAA decided to step in, and declare any and all personal watercraft illegal in the area. Personal watercraft, as many people already know, are far less damaging to the environment than larger vessels are. The "jet" propulsion method makes it nearly impossible to cause injury to a sea animal without crashing directly into them - which any halfway sane person would avoid doing, if only for their own survival. Larger watercraft normally use an exposed propeller for propulsion, which can easily injure or kill various kinds of sea life. The wake from personal watercraft is much smaller than that from larger vessels... not to mention, being nothing at all, compared to almost all of the waves that come through the area. The amount of sand pulled away, and pushed back onto the beaches when there are decent swells. The kelp ripped away from reefs, and cliff faces eroded into the ocean by the action of nature's waves. Compared to that, the personal watercraft are harmless toys.
If Maverick's had been permitted to keep personal watercraft on hand, if only for safety reasons, they could have kept, and maintained, the excellent safety system they already had. Unfortunately, the NOAA stepped in, just like a bunch of busybody bureaucrats with almost no real understanding of what they were doing, and took all of that away. If Trette never wakes, or wakes with brain damage, we can safely say that it's the NOAA's fault.
And if the NOAA decides to cite Ord and ticket him for taking out his personal watercraft to save a life, perhaps we should see what we can do to get the NOAA shut out of such decisions, and replaced by people who actually a)know what they're talking about, and b) have a real interest in the preservation of the seas, instead of a political interest. Let the NOAA have their weather systems and oceanography; let people who actually care take care of the rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment