‘My friend cut fishing net and rescued my life’
While divers here are not permitted to hold marine guns while diving, they are only allowed to hold knives for emergency cases like being stuck in anything such as fishing nets or old ropes.
Faisal J. Al Hammadi, an Emirati diver and instructor, was once diving in Abu Dhabi with other divers.
“We have agreed, as always advised, to remain in group of two by two, and never to dive alone.”
The site where we dived was close to a sunken ship, named Jassim, he added. “Unfortunately, the ship was surrounded with old and torn fishing nets.”
Al Hammadi wanted to get inside the old ship and explore part of its. “When entering the ship through an opening there I got stuck in old fishing net from behind.”
The 10-year-experienced diver tried several times to cut the net with his knife and escape, but he could not as his back was stuck in the too many ropes which he could not see.
“My co-divers went to the other side of the ship and could not see me,” he said. “I remained stuck for about five minutes during which I failed to cut the fishing net.”
What made the situation worse was the low-level oxygen left in Al Hammadi’s scuba. “The air reached a serious 70-bar level, and I could not even remove the scuba and diving suit which were tightly wrapped around me by the fishing net.”
Suddenly, Al Hammadi’s fellow diver appeared and discovered the problem after a while. “He first did not notice what was going on, and was about to leave, but discovered that I was stuck and luckily he cut the fishing net on time and rescued my life.”
Al Hammadi could not continue his diving for that day following the narrow escape from the old fishing net. “We could not help canceling the diving session for that day after the oxygen in my scuba went down to only 50 bar, and that was hardly enough for safely diving up to the sea surface.”