Salmon divers lobby for regulation improvement
Last year the national maritime authority announced a change in legislation with respect to the occupational health and safety of scuba divers employed for salmon farming operations. The new legislation that is proposed to go into effect translates into a dramatic increase in operative costs that are of concern for the diving service providers as well as the salmon companies, which will ultimately be stuck with the bill. The new legislation requires that all divers must use a full-face mask, a safety regulator, and that the person in charge of the air hose and compressor must be certified as an intermediate level diver able to monitor diver safety parameters. This may sound like the most basic OHS regulation ever written. In Chile however, until today the salmon companies manage their daily underwater maintenance with two basic-level divers and one commercial diver per farm site. These divers breathe of off filtered air produced in compressors that are run by either gasoline or liquid gas motors, and the diving gear is nothing more than the basic gear required for recreational diving. No one is in disagreement with the new safety standards, but the reality for the diving service sector is that the majority of the diver workforce has a very limited education, and the expectation that today’s basic-level divers must certify themselves as intermediates is unachievable in the short term. County Commissioner Patricio Vallespín has manifested the need for a two-year implementation period for the new regulation, during which time the regulation must be redesigned based on what is learned through the implementation process. “In this context, I am asking of the Government to make available a subsidy for diving service providers, so that they may acquire the additional education, training, and equipment needed in order to comply with the regulation. On the contrary, we will have another regulation that defeats its purpose because the same users of the regulation will not have the intellectual or financial resources to implement it,” states Vallespín.
