Gear Report: Tourniquet

“Aren’t you afraid of sharks?” This is a common question I receive from people who have just learned that I regularly freedive and spearfish. 

My normal response is, “In all my years freediving and spearfishing in New England I have never encountered a shark.”  And that’s the truth. That anecdotal evidence has come from more that two decades of diving. Most of those years included the use of a body stringer. A simple device attached to the divers weight belt, which is used to hold speared and dispatched fish until they can be deposited into the boat or kayak.  So in essence the diver is swimming around with fish that are dead, but still bleeding for a number of minutes after being speared and strung. 

To non-divers the use of a body stringer sounds slightly insane. Why would you want to swim around in murky water with bleeding fish on your back?  But the usefulness of a body stringer lies in its ability to allow the diver to “stay on the fish”.  Fish by nature are not stationary, and by making successive dives in an area it allows the diver to track the fish as they move across the reef. 

With that being said, over my years of diving the local marine life in our waters has changed. With some species becoming more abundant and others less so.  One of our local fauna that is becoming increasingly abundant is seal. And for better or for worse the abundance of seals is attracting sharks. Specifically Great White Sharks. 

This has slowly developed over a number of years.  With more and more white shark sightings each year. As a diver this development is slightly unnerving.  

With this in mind I have taken a few simple steps to ease my concerns while diving. 

1- Stop using a body stringer. 

2- Invest in a good first aid kit along with multiple tourniquets. 

From what I have read about tourniquets they are only useful if they are readily available when needed.  I have two tourniquets onboard my boat as well as a first aid kit.  But, recently I have been considering putting a tourniquet holder on my weight belt, so it can be handy if needed.  

Here are the tourniquets that I purchased after much research on the best brands/models.  I decided to buy direct from the manufacturer because of many reports of “knock-off” tourniquets on Amazon that fell apart in use.  

C-A-T Tourniquet from North American Rescue

https://www.narescue.com/combat-application-tourniquet-c-a-t.html