Australasian Diving Safety Foundation, Ashburton, Victoria, Australia.
Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
Diving Hyperb Med. 2021 Mar 31;51(1):25-33. doi: 10.28920/dhm51.1.25-33.
New Zealand's (NZ) long coastline offers a diverse underwater environment with abundant opportunities for harvesting seafood and for recreation. Fatalities from snorkelling/breath-hold diving have been reported from the 1960s through to 2006. Those from 2007 to 2016 are reported here.
The National Coronial Information System, the Australasian Diving Safety Foundation diving fatality database, and the Water Safety NZ "Drownbase" were searched and additional coronial data provided by the NZ Ministry of Justice. An anonymised database was created and analysed for multiple factors. A chain of events analysis was performed for each case.
There were 38 snorkelling or breath-hold-related deaths in NZ, 33 men and five women. Twenty-nine were breath-hold divers involved in gathering seafood, and six 'surface snorkellers', predominantly sightseeing. Two-thirds were diving alone and/or were not being observed by anyone out of the water. Twenty-eight victims were classified as overweight or obese and 19/38 were Maori. Pre-existing health factors that may have or definitely contributed to the fatality were present in 30 cases. The most common of these were cardiac (18/38). Two divers had insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, one each epilepsy and asthma whilst cannabis and/or alcohol were possible factors in seven deaths. Five (possibly six) deaths resulted from apnoeic hypoxia.
Overall, death from snorkelling/breath-hold diving was an uncommon event (38 in 10 years). Poor judgement was a common feature. Middle-aged Maori men with pre-existing disease feature strongly. This suggests an on-going need for appropriate water safety education within and beyond the Maori community.
新西兰（NZ）漫长的海岸线提供了多样化的水下环境，有丰富的机会收获海鲜和进行娱乐性潜水。自 20 世纪 60 年代至 2006 年，已有因潜水而导致的死亡报告。2007 年至 2016 年的相关报告如下。
通过国家验尸官信息系统、澳大拉西亚潜水安全基金会潜水事故数据库以及新西兰水上安全局的“Drownbase”进行搜索，并由新西兰司法部提供了额外的验尸数据。创建了一个匿名数据库并对多个因素进行了分析。对每个案例进行了事件链分析。
新西兰有 38 例与浮潜或闭气潜水相关的死亡，其中 33 例为男性，5 例为女性。29 例为进行海鲜采集的闭气潜水员，6 例为“水面浮潜者”，主要是观光。三分之二的潜水者独自潜水且/或没有人在水面外观察。28 名受害者被归类为超重或肥胖，38 人中 19 人为毛利人。30 例中存在可能或确定导致死亡的预先存在的健康因素。其中最常见的是心脏问题（18/38）。两名潜水员患有胰岛素依赖型糖尿病，一名患有癫痫和哮喘，而大麻和/或酒精可能是七例死亡的原因。五（可能六）例死亡是由于呼吸暂停性缺氧导致的。
总体而言，浮潜/闭气潜水导致的死亡是罕见事件（10 年内 38 例）。判断失误是一个常见特征。毛利中年男性患有预先存在的疾病，这一现象尤为突出。这表明需要在毛利社区内外持续开展适当的水上安全教育。
