A Review of Equipment Contribution among Recreational Scuba Divers

Abstract

Scuba diving is one of the most popular activities that involve risks with nature. It can lead to major injuries or even cause deaths. The rate of exposure to fatality among scuba divers has become a major concern. The number of fatalities among the divers in the United States (U.S.) and Canada is in between 80 to 100 per year. The statistic also shows over 16 fatalities rate among the divers in the U.S. and Canada for every 100,000 recreational divers per year. There are three countries with a high number of deaths among the divers in Asia, which are Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. The statistic shows that these three countries have an increasing number of accidents in scuba diving activities. The upshot rate of fatalities should not be neglected and needed a critical emphasis. This paper aims to propose a framework that shows the effect of diving equipment on accidents among scuba divers. A review of previous studies was conducted to meet the objective. A previous study indicated that diving equipment had a relationship with human error in the scuba diving activity. Diving equipment condition can be measured based on equipment malfunction, faults, and misuse. Diving equipment can be one of the factors that lead to accidents among divers. For scuba diving, divers need to know the equipment before continuing with the activities to avoid any undesired situation. A direct relationship was proposed to find the effect of diving equipment and accidents. The study will contribute to the tourism sector for marine tourism’s sustainability in reducing fatality accidents among recreational divers.