Page 245 - Manual for Activities directed at the Underwater Cultural Heritage

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of equipment, such as free dangling gauges or secondary breathing sources, should risk getting entangled. If a secondary breathing source gets sucked into a dredge or airlift, the breathing supply will rapidly be emptied. Incidents of this nature have led to fatalities. A means of quickly shutting off the supply to the excavation equipment must be within easy reach of the diver operating it.
A work place, below as well as above water, needs to be kept well-organized and its layout described and understood. Guiding lines, ropes and reference spikes, power-supplies, such as compressed air or water-hoses for the airlift, water-dredge or other tools need to be mapped and all underwater workers should help the dive supervisor and the project director to rationalise the way that equipment lines and hoses are placed on the site to reduce the potential dangers associated with snags.
If working at several sites during the course of a project, each site should be described separately.
Additionally, the working environment (depths, water temperature and conditions, currents, visibility), and weather conditions (temperature, precipitation, winds) should be presented in this section. These will be further addressed in the risk assessment (see risk assessment, below), in order to mitigate any hazards these might cause to diving operations.
Roles and chain of command
In order to ensure fulfilment of tasks and a functioning chain of command during a project, specific roles must be assigned during diving operations.
Project director: this person is responsible for the overall running and daily organization of the project and leads the daily briefings. This person is also ultimately responsible for maintaining safety standards, maintaining the chain of command, and ensuring that project participants follow operating procedures.
Dive supervisor (or diving safety officer): this person is a qualified individual responsible for the organization
Safety