
Boss charters helicopter to find employees in tree over crocodile-infested river - curtis
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-06/boss-charters-helicopter-to-rescue-two-employees-stuck-in-tree/10877412?pfmredir=sm
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cyberferret
Happened in my neck of the woods (oh, OK, swamp). In the absence of flares,
use a fire extinguisher to signal the rescue helicopter. Nice end result.

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achow
Makes me think that there is potential of repurposing military smokescreen
technology for emergency gear.

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saiya-jin
Single-use flares/smoke generators are nice if you are sure you will be
spotted during that specific fly-through by rescue team. If not, you need to
pack some amount with you. You need to be sure they don't 'expire' and don't
get wet.

What about some emergency signal mirrors with pinhole? It can be plastic so
nearly indestructible, weights few grams, basically credit-card size, cost
nothing, due to pinhole you can point the sun reflection pretty precisely
towards rescuers and it doesn't run out.

Drawback is obviously inefficiency without direct sunlight, but this is
something I carry on every camping trip and I don't even think about it
anymore.

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cm2187
Seems simpler to have some sort of radio beacon.

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supermatt
Which would you recommend? Id happily carry a credit card sized radio beacon
in addition to my emergency reflector.

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dlgeek
Not OP, but I know the Spot products are pretty popular
([https://www.findmespot.com/en/](https://www.findmespot.com/en/)). Though,
the Gen3 is quite a bit thicker than a credit card and they do run $20/month
for service.

But, they're designed for exactly this.

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supermatt
I have a Fastfind PLB as my primary (doesnt need a subscription, but one-time
use), but I'm interested in this CC-sized device OP mentioned as an every-day
carry.

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crocigator
Am I the only one with cognitive dissonence about the "South Alligator River"
being described as "crocodile-infested", which is in Australia (a country with
absolutely no alligators).

(edit typo)

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stephen_g
According to Wikipedia, "They were explored by Lieutenant Phillip Parker King
in 1820, who named them in the mistaken belief that the crocodiles in the
estuaries were alligators."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator_Rivers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator_Rivers)

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js2
Not being familiar with the area, I had a couple questions I’ve hypothesized
answers for.

Why didn’t they drink the river water if they were dehydrated? It was probably
too salty. This river is close to the sea.

Why didn’t they swim to high ground instead of climbing a tree? Unless
crocodiles are particularly aggressive, I don’t think they likely feared being
attacked. More likely they either could not swim, or high ground is much too
far away to reach, this being a swamp. (I’m from Florida - gators rarely
attack humans.)

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sizzzzlerz
Aussie crocs are notoriously aggressive. The salt water croc, which infests
these waters, can grow upwards of 20+ feet. It doesn't really matter how far
from land these guys were nor how deep the water, it's pretty unlikely they'd
survive a swim.

This situation is the stuff of nightmares.

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js2
This sounds like a much harsher environment than the Florida everglades then.

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ganeshkrishnan
Salt water crocs are active human hunters and will almost definitely kill.
They have also dragged humans and livestock from the land back to water. In
the water is obviously dangerous and near the water is also fatal.

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Santosh83
Infest is not the right word to use for animals in their natural habitat. In
wilderness, it is humans who can be considered to be infesting...

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benj111
Rotting meat infested with maggots.

Wood infested with woodworm.

Infest has negative connotations, in the sense that it isn't something good.
It doesn't indicate unnaturalness though.

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dmos62
That's the parent's point, isn't? It's normal, i.e. not bad, that there's lots
of alligators there; and calling it infested, in other words, implying that
we'd prefer that they not be there, is disturbing in its human-centricity.

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benj111
If you were stuck in a tree in a mangrove, would you want alligators swimming
about?

Its negative because they might eat you. If it were ponies, I wouldn't use the
word infested.

Yes it is human centric. That isn't necessarily bad, we are human after all.
Just like ponies being harmless is human centric. To a blade of grass that
pony is very much not harmless.

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dmos62
The point of view that I'm attacking, whether it is shared by some of the
parents or not, is "I don't know where I am, and I don't care, all that
matters is that I am inconvenienced by X, and therefore X is bad". If someone
were to ride a road bicycle through a mountain trail, and complain about it
not being paved, I'd be similarly aching to ask "maybe you're the problem?".

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nkrisc
Yeah, maybe they shouldn't have gone and got themselves stuck in that tree.

