Zhang Qiujue, a 26-year-old girl from Shanghai, lost contact on December 9 while snorkeling on Longmu Island, Indonesia. Today is the tenth day and there is still no news, according to China Voice of China. Indonesian police speculated that Zhang Qiu-Chueh had been swept away by water while diving, local media reported. At present, the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia has intervened.
Snorkeling is a popular item for tourists to travel to Southeast Asia. In recent years, casualties are frequently seen in newspapers. According to statistics from Thailand's Ministry of Tourism and Sports, a total of 73 Chinese tourists drowned in Thailand in the first half of 2017 alone. In February 2018, the Insurance Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sorted out nearly 700 cases of accidental deaths overseas of China's citizen in 2017. More than 1/3 cases of accidental deaths due to tourism activities were found. Most of these deaths were due to water sports accidents, mainly swimming or snorkeling drowning. How terrible is snorkeling? How can tourists avoid risks when they are obsessed with a wonderful world at the bottom of the sea?
The missing girl after taking part in snorkeling is still missing
On the night of December 15, Mr. Zhang from Shanghai told journalist that his daughter, Zhang Qiu-Chueh, was lost in Indonesia. Zhang Qiu-Chueh's classmates said that Zhang Qiu-Chueh's last post on December 7, Time line, is located in Bali, Indonesia.
On the 16th, journalist learned from the liaison office of Longmu Island, Chinese Consulate in Bali, that Zhang Qiu-Chueh and a Moroccan friend's travel agency on Longmu Island signed up for the snorkeling project on December 9, but only the Moroccan friend returned on that day. Zhang Qiujue did not return after snorkeling, he said. After searching for three days without finding Zhang Qiu-Chueh's whereabouts, the travel agency reported the case to Indonesian police and informed the Chinese consulate in Bali.
In addition, Zhang Qiu-Chueh's father told journalist that he had contacted the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia on the 15th, and is in the process of urgently processing passports in order to travel to Indonesia as soon as possible. Zhang Qiu-Chueh's father said that as long as it is missing, there is always hope, better than bad news, that she will survive.
According to Zhang Qiu-Chueh's classmate, Zhang can swim, but it is not clear how well she can swim. His father said that her daughter learned to swim in college and should not be skilled.
At present, the incident has not made significant progress.
Snorkeling has become a popular tourism project in Southeast Asia, lack of safety awareness, management is not in place, resulting in hidden dangers.
In recent years, Chinese tourists in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries, there have been many incidents of casualties due to participation in snorkeling games. Liu Simin, an expert on tourism issues, analyzed several reasons: "Southeast Asia has always been a popular destination for citizen outbound tourism in China, because it is in this tropical region and the quality of the sea water is relatively good, so special marine tourism projects, Including snorkeling, all year round is suitable, Chinese tourists are more willing to participate in these projects, the base of this must be much larger than in the domestic; On the other hand, we have relatively little experience in this respect, we may think that the technical content of that thing is not very high, anyone can try, and then the sense of safety is not enough; For the local level of management, not enough attention, the lax awareness of safety management, is the third reason. "
Professional: snorkeling also requires training guidance be careful
So what do you have to pay attention to when you participate in snorkeling? Journalist contacted coach Yang Guang, the Chinese free diving man's static closed-air record holder. He first told journalist that people in the swimming pool and in the sea were completely two concepts. Marine scuba diving requires professional training, snorkeling also needs a certain amount of training guidance.
Yang Guang: "Deep contact with the ocean is completely different from swimming in the swimming pool." The activities in the open waters are roughly divided into three types: one is that we people are more involved in snorkeling, on the surface of the water, with face glasses and breathing tubes, and there are lifejackets, and most importantly, there are lifejackets. It is to use a face mirror to observe the marine life in the sea. The other two are diving into the ocean, one called scuba diving and the other free diving. Many people may not know that snorkeling is actually a course, the use of goggles and breathing tubes is completely different from the use of swimming glasses. Even in particularly calm waters, if you don't use a breathing tube, it's probably dangerous to keep breathing it into your lungs in a panic, tense situation. "
Yang Guang suggested that you must be careful when participating in such ocean games as snorkeling, and find a professional place to understand the relevant knowledge, not too careless.
Yang Guang: "when you go to the beach, you are still very different from the swimming pool." Open water is the sea, the sea is very broad, people must be in awe to go, do not always think that I want to challenge nature or what. Whether snorkeling or scuba diving, free diving, there are courses to attend, you can go to the beach to learn. Also, if you really just want to sunbathe and swim at the seaside, be sure to swim in the presence of shark nets and lifeguards. "
Close to the end of the year, New Year's Day and Spring Festival are approaching, many domestic tourists are ready to travel to Southeast Asia and other places. Tourism expert Liu Simin also reminded you that when participating in ocean tourism projects, you must have a feeling of awe to the sea and tighten the string of safety at all times.
Liu Simin: "leave the basis of safety, the original intention of travel is lost." Everyone must have tightened the string of safety, and the alarm bell of safety must be long. Don't look at these events as simple, probably swimming, sure, but in fact the ocean is a very mysterious power, and often unknowable. So I think we must be in awe of the ocean when we travel and play with the sea. You must listen to the manager's request and, of course, listen to the tips of the travel agency or related personnel. Never blindly confident, or even conceited, otherwise it will easily lead to tragedy. "
Snorkeling is by no means as safe as it might be. Because snorkeling personnel are not professional and equipment is relatively simple, they are more likely to be dangerous. Tourists should be especially careful about offshore currents, where many swimmers have been hurt by offshore currents, and some have exhausted their energy in the course of confrontation with offshore currents. Therefore, professionals caution that when the water breaks off the sea, do not swim through the gaps in the rocks below.