ANNUAL REPORT
SANCOR DIVE TASK TEAM
1. REPORTING PERIOD: - May 2006 to February 2011
2. SUMMARY OF GROUP OBJECTIVES
This task team was formed five years ago in an attempt to keep the SANCOR Steering Committee informed about development in the Scientific Diving field especially with regard to the Dive Council and the promulgation of the new Diving Regulation (see below for the initial motivational document for the formation of the Task Team).
HISTORY
Motivation to SANCOR steering committee for the formulation of a Scientific Diving co-ordinating Group - 3 May 2006
Background
Scientific diving in South Africa is regulated by the Department of Labour through the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) of 1993 and more specifically the 2001 Diving Regulations of this Act. Included in these regulations is the formation of a Council for Diving. It is this Council that is responsible for producing the “new” regulations, which were promulgated in 2002 and have caused concern in many Scientific Diving circles since, because of a lack of consultation in the run up to their promulgation. In addition, the Scientific Diving community was asked in 2005 to submit a diving Code of Practice that would form the basis of the next set of Diving Regulations due to be promulgated in 2006. Although the Scientific Diving community was responsible for producing this document it was only accepted after the existing members of the Council for Diving had added what they felt was appropriate amendments. This seems unreasonable as they will not be the ones diving under this Code of Practise.
Motivation
What all this has served to do is make us realise that we (as a diving community) are not sufficiently involved or represented on the Council for Diving and that we are not presenting a united front to this Council. It is important as we move forward, and particularly as yet more New Regulations are being promulgated, that the SANCOR Steering Committee is well informed about diving issues and can therefore make informed decisions but also that we present a united front and insist on being consulted prior to the promulgations of new Regulations. I believe that this is an important period in Scientific Diving in South Africa and an excellent time to form a co-ordinating group that will remain informed and involved, on behalf of all Scientific Divers, as the Code of Practice and the new Regulations are finalised.
Many of these issues were discussed at Baralogia in Dec 2005 and the delegates were asked to nominate representatives who would serve on a SANCOR dive co-ordinating group. Those nominated were:
Chris Wilke MCM Representative 021 402 3911
Kerry Sink KwaZulu Natal Representative 082 831 0536
Anton Cloete Eastern Cape Rep 082 903 9403
Jonathan Sharfman Marine Archaeology Rep. 021 424 5026
Paul Hanekom Dive Council member
Michael Farquhar Aquarium Rep. And elected Chairman
All have accepted their nominations and now await the Steering Committee to formalise this Co-ordinating group.
3. PRIMARY ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN
The Task Team was formed in May 2006 with the anticipation of the imminent promulgation of the new draft Diving Regulations. Unfortunately, it took over two years for the draft regulations to be promulgated and during that time the core team disbanded. That is not to say that they were not consulted or involved with the process going forward but there was no core team as such. Considerably headway was made in formulating a unified comment on the draft regulations from the Scientific Diving community at a workshop during the 2009 SAMSS conference at UCT. In fact, the scientific diving community’s response to the draft regulations was so vociferous that an entire rewrite commenced. During this process we were asked to submit a Scientific Diving Code of Practice and an Aquarium Diving Code of Practice.
To cut a long story short, the final outcome for the Scientific Diving community, after many years of discussions with the Dive Council and many written comments on their draft regulations, was the inclusion of a Class 5 (Scientific Diving) qualification and Code of Practice and a Class 6 (Aquarium Diving) qualification and Code of Practice in the 2009 Diving Regulations, which were eventually promulgated in January 2010.
There were many people involved in ensuring that we commented extensively, professionally and timeously to the draft regulations from a number of different organisations, including: Sancor, SAAMBR, MCM, UPE, Two Oceans Aquarium, UCT, and others. The sheer volume of comment ensured that our comments were seriously considered and that we eventually succeeded in having our own Codes of Practice incorporated into the regulations.
4. PLANS FOR NEXT YEAR
I believe that we have achieved our goals and I therefore suggest that the Sancor Dive Task Team is formally disbanded.
Michael Farquhar
February 9th 2011