Spearfishing safety campaigns - prop strikes

Hi everyone

I'm a designer working on a campaign in New South Wales, Australia to raise awareness about spearfishers and freedivers being hit by boats (prop strikes), an issue which has become increasingly significant here, unfortunately.

To research how to do this effectively I am really interested in finding out how much this has been an issue in other parts of the world and what's been done about it. To To give you an idea of what I am talking about, below are some examples of safety campaigns in Italy and Victoria, Australia. Perhaps some deeper blue members can point me to any other campaigns they know about? I'd be interested in knowing how they were applied (e.g signs at boat ramps, stickers, magazine ads etc) and especially interested in any follow up data which might indicate how successful these campaigns can be (statistical or anecdotal). Thanks in advance for your help

Guy

yes thanks I'm cross posting there already... no one's bitten yet, but in the meantime I've discovered SPIN (Stop Prop. Injuries Now) whose site has a lot of information, though curiously they are more focused on lobbying to force boating manufacturers to add prop guards and develop safer propulsion systems. That's interesting, but probably not so relevant here in Australia (or at least for the campaign I'm working on) which is really about raising the awareness of watercraft operators. Certainly in Sydney it seems that we have a large number of boaties whom, while perhaps aware of the meaning of dive flags, assume there is little risk as the divers are always deep below which is a very dangerous assumption for spearfishers and freedivers. Additionally, boats must remain distant from unmarked personal floats, but thats not well known either. There is another campaign ongoing to educate spearos to always use flags, but its not a legal requirement.

shrek, we have had many very bad injuries and near-fatalities in Sydney the past few years so I can say for sure its different from NZ. Sydney is a very populated city and a fantastic spot for both boating and diving of all sorts and we have a lot of both happening in the same location. Its unavoidable. Obviously spearos must do everything necessary to indicate their presence but by the same measure boaties must do everything necessary to avoid collisions. Hence the purpose of this campaign. So the advice 'don't dive anywhere near boats' is not very relevant in the Sydney context - spearos here already avoid boats as much as possible, but its just not possible completely.

By the way, the last injury I heard about happened to a spearo diving from a boat with a flag AND a personal float and flag, and it still happened.