Dive Flag Laws

[DiveCaptDean]

Hey Dog-
Other than my reading into the entire statute too much,( which is intentional as its fun to do sometimes)..i would disagree with you on the multiple divers portion...I would think that the reason they want to limit the amount of divers diving under one flag..is the same reason they expect you to stay within 50 horizontal feet of the flag...to keep people together within that boundary....if you have more divers under the flag..its harder to keep them within the 50ft limit.  At least thats what i think is the reason.  The law is pretty clear here..with no gray whatsoever....a maximum of 4 divers under each flag.  Now keep in mind...I am not at all worried about this as a captain.  As it would not be enforced in that way.  This is not a coast guard rule and the coast guard governs the waters that i frequent.  But on an interesting side note.....the coast guard does not have specific laws governing captains and their activities..i mean..the coast guard mandates that you have a captains license..that license limits the amount of passengers you can have on your vessel as well as the size of the vessel..it does not tell you what services you can provide...also...if i was approached by a coast guard vessel...with a crew that had someone piss in their cheerios..and i was only flying the red diver down flag...i could get in a lot of hot water...this flag is not the correct flag to fly with divers in the water..according to them............the laws are loose everywhere..and unfortunately their are left to the interpretation of the person with the badge at that time...