Thank you, Crazy Ivan for bringing this to my attention.

This seems, or at least initially appears to be, a shear case of panic, followed by a mad dash to the surface.

There also seems to be some speculation on the thread at Scubaboard.com, that the student’s ascent was initially slowed by the instructor, but the student fought him off.

As ScubaBoard user Merxlin speculates, “Based on the symptoms (frothing, etc.), it was probably a barotrauma caused by rapid ascent due to panic. From my conversation with them, the rapid ascent occurred in the final 15 to 20 ft.”

Not becoming an instructor is getting to be a better and better idea, at least for me.

My condolences to the family.

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November 1, 2009 – AVALON, Calif. A Redlands woman died after suddenly surfacing during her deep-sea certification test on Catalina Island Sunday, deputies said.

Mona Towle, 56, died while being rushed from Avalon to Two Harbors, where she was to be treated for apparent decompression sickness, L.A. sheriff’s deputy Robert Domin said.

Emergency personnel worked to revive Towle after she suddenly surfaced from more than 65 feet below the water at a marine sanctuary just north of Avalon’s casino, another deputy said.

Towle was reportedly experiencing problems with her scuba equipment while ascending to the water’s surface. Divers must ascend at a rate slow enough to avoid “the bends,” a painful physical condition caused by an excessive concentration of nitrogen in the bloodstream.

The diver was being transported by boat for treatment at a hyperbaric chamber when her heart stopped, deputies said.

The original article is here.

Thanks to Crazy Ivan for pointing this out to me – sort of an old post, but it’s worth posting here if you haven’t heard about this.
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Originally posted by Martin Brody on August 3, 2009 – The entire original article may be found here.

There’s been a lot of Great White Shark activity in Southern California lately… sightings and video footage in Malibu, fly-fishing in San Diego, sightings in Northern Santa Barbara County, and more. To what can we attribute this sharp uptick in Great White Shark activity here in So Cal? How about El Niño?!

NOAA’s analysis of El Niño indicates that we can expect this cyclical phenomenon to appear this winter – “Synopsis: El Niño conditions will continue to develop and are expected to last through the Northern Hemisphere Winter 2009-2010.

During June 2009, conditions across the equatorial Pacific Ocean transitioned from ENSO-neutral to El Niño conditions. Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies continued to increase… Subsurface oceanic heat content anomalies (average temperatures in the upper 300m of the ocean, Fig. 3) also increased as the thermocline continued to deepen. Consistent with the oceanic evolution, the low-level equatorial trade winds were weaker-than-average across much of the Pacific basin, and convection became increasingly suppressed over Indonesia. This coupling of the ocean and atmosphere indicates the development of El Niño conditions.”

Across the Atlantic, the world is watching and waiting… The Independent reports: “A new El Niño has begun. The sporadic Pacific Ocean warming, which can disrupt weather patterns across the world, is intensifying, say meteorologists. So, over the next few months, there may be increased drought in Africa, India and Australia, heavier rainfall in South America and increased extremes in Britain, of warm and cold. It may make 2010 one of the hottest years on record.”

Scientists present a number of theories for the increase in shark-human interactions: “Dr. George Burgess of Florida University, a shark expert who maintains the International Shark Attack file, states ‘As the population continues to rise, so does the number of people in the water for recreation. And as long as we have an increase in human hours in the water, we will have an increase in shark bites.’

The entire original article may be found here.