two italians missing in laguna dudu

[william webster]

Here in Cabrera... we know this is not the 1st instance of death in Dudu
Has happened before

THe mention of the underground river is correct -

The ridge that runs from RSJ east to past Cabrera has a HUGE river flowing along it.
Playa Grande waters its golf course from it ... I live from it

It has been measured and goes off the scale (so to speak)

Surely the hypothesis that the bodies got flushed out is a good estimate.

 

[mountainannie]

Here is the info on what it takes to get certified as a cave diver - https://nsscds.org/trainingprograms/

follow the links to see that there are not many places where one can actually get this type of certification..

Even though I have been down to 110 ft - in the Cayman Islands-(which is about the limit for just plain vanilla open water divers) and used to regularly dive in Haiti down to 80 - and snorkel along a fire coral reef with almost pet Moray Eels..

just reading the list sends shivers up and down my spine...really scary stuff..

(but then, I don't really even like riding in elevators - the thought of being in a cave - even on land - aaarrgh)

 

[cobraboy]

Here is the info on what it takes to get certified as a cave diver - https://nsscds.org/trainingprograms/

follow the links to see that there are not many places where one can actually get this type of certification..

Even though I have been down to 110 ft - in the Cayman Islands-(which is about the limit for just plain vanilla open water divers) and used to regularly dive in Haiti down to 80 - and snorkel along a fire coral reef with almost pet Moray Eels..

just reading the list sends shivers up and down my spine...really scary stuff..

(but then, I don't really even like riding in elevators - the thought of being in a cave - even on land - aaarrgh)

Generally, caves aren't deep. They are long. And dark. And confusing.

And panic-enducing.

 

[AlterEgo]

One body has been found. Today’s DR1 news:

Body of one of two missing Italian divers located in El Dudú cave
The team working to rescue two missing Italian divers in Laguna Dudú in Cabrera, in northeastern province María Trinidad Sánchez said they have located a corpse deep inside the cave. The corpse was located in a high-risk area where a large amount of sediment makes visibility very scarce. Two Italians divers, 57-year old Carlos Barbieri and 44-year old Carlos Basso went missing in the cave on Saturday, 9 February 2019. The rescue efforts will continue as soon as the waters clear.

Director general of the Specialized Corps for Touristic Security, General Juan Carlos Torres Robiou explained the team is made up by Phillip Lehman and Angel Comprés of the Dominican Republic Speleological Society (DRSS) and Sergio Yipola, certified diver of the Auxiliares Navales who joined the search.

Environmentalist Luis Carvajal ured the Ministry of Environment to intervene and establish strict security measures to avoid accidents in the future. A sign in El Dudú alerts to the ban on diving without adequate cave diving certification.

https://eldia.com.do/autoridades-hal...a-laguna-dudu/

 

[william webster]

The locals tell me there is a history of losing cows, horses and other animals in that Dudu

 

[RockyM]

You couldn't pay me enough to cave dive. And it sounds like this was an ill-conceived project at best.

 

[Cdn_Gringo]

While flying a rudder bolt breaks and you find yourself spinning towards the ground, bungee jumping and the elastic breaks, sky diving and neither chute opens, free climbing and that little piece supporting your weight breaks, dangling from a crane by one hand and taking a selfie for FB with the other and of course cave diving with bottled oxygen running out and nowhere to get more... See the set up and the inevitable outcome? Maybe not his time, but eventually.

Very few really need to scuba dive in a cave. Living on the edge is the only thing that sets you up to fall off.

 

[mountainannie]

Generally, caves aren't deep. They are long. And dark. And confusing.

And panic-enducing.

I still do not think in metric -- the info posted says El Dudú has a maximum depth of 25 meters and has 800 meters extension. which is 82 ft x 1312 ft...

I think that the average consumption for one tank at 40 ft is about an hour? Is it possible to carry two tanks? Maybe they were on Nitrox? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrox

But where would they fill the tanks? Filling the scuba tanks is a delicate business....Hate to think of how many ways that can go wrong...

Seems that even just going down into the bottom would have to be on a bounce - (which is all I have done) and there is no bouncing out of a cave.

 

[dv8]

in the news today: both bodies have been found last week but could not be recovered due to how narrow the passages are in that particular area. more work on that is to be carried tomorrow.
https://www.diariolibre.com/actuali...buzos-desaparecidos-en-laguna-dudu-HG12144560

 

[Salsafan]

Diving in Dudu with the diveshops is an every day business there, with almost no more danger then a normal dive.
The two went there on their own and especially in the prohibited area.

 

[zoomzx11]

so sorry to read this. Cave diving is particularly dangerous. A VERY advanced form of diving. My nephew is a dive leader in Puerto Rico and when he visited me in SD he went out with this team http://cavediving.com.do/website/ which teaches very advanced diving techniques.

I worked with a diving operation in Haiti back in the late 70's - it attracted some of the most adventurous divers in the world (since the nearest hyperbaric chamber was in Cuba - do not know if the DR has one - but that was a long time ago and diving has come a long way - lots more people doing it - and lots more instruction - the odds of anyone getting "bent", getting "the bends" which can happen both on a deep dive and on a long dive -are much less now since everyone has the decompression tables attached to their equipment)

The DR probably has lots of dive sites that have not really even been "discovered" - it is not promoted as dive destination - which it probably could be. I met a group of divers down in Pedernales - Dominican divers from the Capital- who were taking a boat from there out to Isla Beata -- and wanted the "fisherman to stop fishing" because they were taking the fish from the reef.

It was always sad for me to see some of the gorgeous reef fish being sold for eating.

https://divezone.net/diving/dominican-republic

RIP

Its not just caves. Entering any enclosed space while diving is very hazardous.
Every so often you read where highly trained and experienced cave divers run out of air and drown.

Years ago when I was dumber there was a shallow steel wreck in the Florida Keys that would fill up with lobsters.
It was one way in and one way out through a small hatch that required me to take off my tank to fit through.
Only safe thing I did was take two flash lights.
I would not consider going in for a million dollars. Well maybe a million but not a penny less.

 

[zoomzx11]

Today’s DR1 News

Two divers go missing in Laguna Dudu
Two Italian divers, 57-year old Carlos Barbieri and 44-year old Carlos Basso, are missing after going for a cave dive on Saturday, 9 February 2019 in El Dudú in Cabrera, in northeastern María Trinidad Sánchez province. The Dominican Republic Speleological Society (DRSS) said that two of their experts, Phillip Lehman and Ángel Compres have joined the rescue team and are working in collaboration with Cabrera authorities and the owners of the Laguna El Dudú recreational area. The search, nevertheless, was suspended on Monday, 11 February 2019 due to reduced visibility in the lagoon waters.

Gerge Martínez, manager of El Dudú, explained that it appears that the Italians ignored the sign posted at the entrance to the cave that warns about the hazards of diving in the cave without adequate international cave diving certification. The society says that diving in a cave requires different training than what is needed to dive in the sea or open water. Likewise, different equipment is required for cave diving. Martínez said that the wife of one of the missing divers said they have dived at the site on many occasions in the past.

El Dudú has a maximum depth of 25 meters and has 800 meters extension.

https://listindiario.com/la-republic...-cueva-el-dudu
https://eldia.com.do/aguas-turbias-a...ueda-de-buzos/

Be willing to wager they are not missing and are right there in the cave. Why go in these places?. There is no fish or lobster, little to see and the risks are very very high.
Technical diving I can see the appeal but go into a black underwater cave to find out nothing is there. Nope.
And yet people frequently die in these caves.
Suffocation by drowning is not a pleasant way to end.
Done a few dumb things in my life and nearly drowned more than once. Resisting the urge to take a deep breath of seawater is painful when you get near the point of losing your breath holding control.

 

[jahjahwarrior]

Cave diving is very safe if you are trained and follow the rules. Dudu is side mount cave without much water moving so if you create silt it stays for a long time. There are many places where it is easy to do that...

Philippe and angel are expert divers and they know dudu like the back of their hands, I'm very sorry they have to recover these guys bodies especially because philippe is leading the way trying to keep open water divers out of caves.

Happens a few times a year in the states too and mostly preventable...

Hope dudu continues to allow trained divers but I would love to see strong action taken against any open water divers in caves!

When I dove in dudu I didn't carry my full rig, but here is a low quality gopro shot of the cavern zone.
The inside areas get small, requiring tanks to be on your side, but that is not unusual, many caves are like that, and it's safe with training. Dominican caves often have stalactites and stalagmites unlike Florida caves, so they are especially beautiful to visit

 

[habi]

Here a Update from yesterday...

[video=youtube;HXUQNwSXihg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXUQNwSXihg[/video]

Looking at the map in the background they went really far in....

 

[Salsafan]

@jj: you have to be more specific. No dudu for ow generell or no dudu for ow alone.

 

[cobraboy]

We heard from a person who would know that DuDu has closed, possibly permanently.

 

[dv8]

first body was recovered:
https://www.elcaribe.com.do/2019/02...el-buzo-italiano-desaparecido-en-laguna-dudu/

 

[william webster]

In a body bag -- this afternoon

Big crowd... naturally

No... I wasn't there

 

[JD Jones]

In a body bag -- this afternoon

Big crowd... naturally

No... I wasn't there

I imagine having them in a body bag made it a lot easier to pull him out. Getting him into a body bag had to be a difficult task.

 

[william webster]

I hear there wasn't much of a body left.