A woman scuba-diving off Venice Beach in Florida has reported being dragged up off the 7m-deep seabed after a motor-boat caught her dive-flag and float in its propeller. The incident occurred on 28 March.
Stephanie Holtey had fastened the line to her wrist and said she inhaled water as her regulator second-stage was yanked out of her mouth. She had surfaced to see two anglers watching her from their boat, one of them taking video.
“I come up coughing and freaking out and there’s some dude recording me suffer,” she stated later. Her dive-buddy Sean Riley, who had followed her up, captured his own video recording of the foul-mouthed altercation that ensued.
While diving on Saturday in Venice Beach, I got ripped off the ocean floor at 23 feet when my dive flag got wrapped around a boat motor! ‼️🤿 I own the company *Abyss Explorers* and we videotape all our dives for social media, so thank God we were able to capture this footage as proof and report to FWC!
Posted by Stephanie Holtey on Sunday 29 March 2026
“Excuse my language in the video,” said Riley. “I was pissed off and really scared. I didn’t know what was happening. Just watching her get dragged away from my side and way faster than I could swim was terrifying.
“Thank god they knew it [the flag] was attached to the boat and started drifting, otherwise I could only pray she gets to her dive-knife to cut the line. I’m still shaking just watching this. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to her.”
Reported to FWC
Holtey runs a company called Abyss Explorers, diving and snorkelling to “treasure-hunt and fossil-find”, looking in particular for shark-teeth. “We videotape all our dives for social media, so thank god we were able to capture this footage as proof and report to the FWC!” she said.
The FWC (Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission) is said to be investigating the incident. State law directs that anyone operating water craft should make a “reasonable effort” to stay at least 90m away from any divers-down marker in open water. If a boat is forced to come any closer it must do so at the minimum speed needed to maintain steerage.
Violations are usually regarded as non-criminal infractions that can incur fines, though anything regarded as dangerous behaviour can escalate to a charge of reckless vessel operation.
The boat, Catch The Wave, was from the large fleet belonging to Waves Boat & Social Club of Venice, according to WINK News, which was told that a member was taking a guest out on an angling trip. Waves, which describes itself as south-west Florida’s premier boating club, was said to be fully co-operating with the FWS investigation.
“We take this matter extremely seriously,” the company stated. “The safety of divers, boaters and all members of the public is our highest priority, and any situation involving disregard for safety protocols is unacceptable.”
Training agencies recommend that scuba divers using a dive-flag and float should simply grip the line or reel or, if wanting to secure it, opt for a quick-release attachment and keep a cutting tool readily accessible.
1200+ dives so far and I have never dragged a dive flag. I choose to ignore the law for my own safety. I have dived at very busy shore dive sites in many places and I rarely see either dive flags or anyone attempting to enforce the law requiring their use. I’d rather put up an SMB, after listening for boats, then haul a flag buoy around from 80 feet or deeper.