Will Insurance Issues put Caribbean Dive Operators Out of Business?

In February, Curtain Bluff Hotel in Antigua discontinued scuba diving for its guests because of difficulty obtaining insurance. They suggested it was a problem for the whole Caribbean. Alarm bells rang at Undercurrent. Would that affect Caribbean diving?

It may. From Sunn Odyssey Divers on Grand Bahama, Karen Rolle told Undercurrent, " It has become increasingly harder to secure liability insurance [even though] we have operated for 40 years with zero accidents. We always had insurance with Vicencia & Buckley. Last year, we were told they no longer cover the Caribbean. We now have insurance with DAN, but for how long?"

Vicencia & Buckley (HUB International) told us they are out of the market. "We are currently unable to provide liability coverage in the Caribbean to the dive industry, except for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The insurance company we have partnered with is unable to provide coverage due to regulatory issues in other countries. As the insurance industry . . . . has faced increased claims . . . . more and more insurance companies (AIG & Tokio Marine included) are unwilling to provide liability coverage for the dive industry."

Peter Meyer, a retired insurance executive who had specialized in diving insurance, told Undercurrent, "The entire dive market is facing insurance challenges (which we predicted some years ago) due to continuing losses by dive insurance carriers. This issue is particularly difficult in the Caribbean and Hawaii; however, coverage is still available, albeit at a slightly increased rating (20-40 percent extra in most areas).

"This is not an insurance crisis, it is a dive industry crisis - which has been developing for years. The recent [multimillion dollar] settlement of the Linnea Mills case, the retreat of PADI's insurers (for the second time in five years), increased injuries and fatalities resulting from COVID inactivity, loss of experienced staff, and the marginal standards and training of literally all dive training agencies and operators . . . .contribute [to the cost and availability of insurance]. Interestingly, PADI is revising many standards, apparently as a requirement of the Linnea Mills settlement."

The Divers Alert Network, "the largest stakeholder in the dive industry," Ken Knezick of Island Dreams Travel reminds us, "is an insurance company." And DAN says that DAN Europe was forced to withdraw from Antigua and Barbuda "last year due to legal/regulatory issues. DAN World Insurance Group S.P. (DAN's liability carrier outside the U.S.) has been selling in several non-U.S. jurisdictions."

So far, we haven't found other dive operators closing down because of insurance costs. But it's in the wind. The minimum a diver can expect is price increases throughout the Caribbean as insurance prices rise.

And also, read our story on the accident at Ramon's. Just because a foreign operator has insurance, it doesn't mean it will do you any good if you are injured.