An Australian snorkelling tour operator has pleaded guilty to breaching health & safety obligations to its boat passengers – by not using a language they could understand to warn them of the risks involved in entering the water.
Queensland operator Bullet Whitsundays has admitted in Mackay Magistrates Court to an “obvious failure” to provide adequate safety instructions to non-English-speakers. It had offered medical-risk declarations and safety information only in English to at least six passengers unable to read the language.
The snorkellers were understood to have been Chinese-speakers on a day-trip to Saba Bay on Hook Island in the Whitsundays chain.
A Queensland government safety publication that included translations of the safety advice into other languages was said to have been available on the vessel, but it had not been shown to the Chinese passengers.
No actual harm or accident was reported in relation to the omission but, as a result of Bullet Whitsundays’ guilty plea, the court has indicated that the company faces potential fines of up to Au $35,000 (more than £18,000).
According to local observers, the outcome could prompt tighter scrutiny of safety protocols in marine-tourism companies operating in the region.
Another company, Hostel Reef Trips, was fined $60,000 last year for its failure to launch a search after a British snorkeller went missing on a 2022 Great Barrier Reef trip, as reported on Divernet. The man, professional boxer Cameron Shaw, was later found dead.
Fake captain hit the rocks
Meanwhile in Hawaii snorkel-boat captain Jeffrey Worthen had got away with using fraudulent qualifications to work on commercial passenger vessels for a decade – but the deception was discovered when disaster struck on one of his snorkelling trips.
According to the US Attorney’s Office and court filings the 61-year-old, of Lahaina, Maui, had falsely claimed to hold a valid Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC), issued by the US Coast Guard and required for many commercial maritime jobs.
Worthen had adopted the identities of a licensed boat captain, a business-owner and an ex-girlfriend to fake the qualification, which he had been using since 2012.
In 2021 Worthen had submitted the MMC to the operator of a small passenger vessel which, on 14 June the following year, he had taken on a commercial snorkelling trip to Lānai.
The boat had struck a rock, throwing five passengers into the water and injuring several others, but when questioned later by Coast Guard investigators, Worthen had again claimed to hold a valid MMC.
He has now appeared in a federal court to admit one count of making a false statement to the Coast Guard and another of wire-fraud, referring to electronic transmission of the false credentials to his employer.
Wire fraud carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and the false-statement offence a maximum of five years, with fines of up to $250,000 per count. Sentencing was set for 15 June.
