🇳🇱Netherlands

Before Entering

• Confirm the exact entry, exit, permitted area and current water-quality advice.
• Use the NOB tide-planning process for tidal sites: advance planning, an up-to-date check and a final assessment at the water.
• Agree depth, gas, thermal limits, navigation, lost-buddy response and an early-abort option.
• Know where emergency oxygen, first aid and communications are located and who can use them.

In the Water

Stay within the qualifications, equipment configuration and conditions the whole team can manage. A light, redundant navigation plan and careful buoyancy matter in dark or silty water. Keep clear of nets and unknown wreck spaces; leave suspected ammunition untouched and report it through the operator or authorities.

Freedivers need a capable, dedicated safety buddy throughout each breath-hold session. Never hyperventilate or practice alone. Low visibility may make an otherwise attractive depth-training venue unsuitable for the planned supervision.

Before Flying

For asymptomatic recreational divers, DAN recommends at least 12 hours after a single no-decompression dive and at least 18 hours after repetitive or multiday diving; substantially longer intervals are advised after dives requiring decompression. Longer margins reduce risk. Follow any longer computer, operator or medical advice, and never fly with suspected diving-illness symptoms. Plan a full non-diving final day when practical.

For a serious diving incident, call 112 or have the skipper contact the Coastguard immediately. Stop diving, give the dispatcher the exact site or vessel position and mention recent diving. A trained responder should provide oxygen and first aid as appropriate while following emergency instructions.

Contact DAN Europe's diving-emergency service for specialist medical coordination after local emergency services have been activated when needed. Do not drive around looking for a chamber or assume a mapped hospital is an available public dive venue. Hospital assessment and any hyperbaric referral should be coordinated by emergency clinicians. Bring the dive computer, profiles, gas information, medical details and insurance contact information without delaying treatment.

The Oosterschelde national park and Grevelingenmeer are protected natural areas within the Natura 2000 framework. Use designated access, respect closed shoreline or bird-resting zones, and follow the current manager's instructions. National-park status does not mean every bank, harbor or channel is open to divers.

Adopt no-touch, no-take recreational diving: do not handle animals, move cuttlefish eggs, remove shellfish, anchor on sensitive growth or stir up the bottom for a photograph. Keep wildlife viewing from shore or boats unobtrusive, and follow a Wadden guide's route and distancing instructions.

Dutch heritage authorities state that recreational divers may observe and photograph archaeological remains but may not move or remove them. Do not dig around wrecks or recover apparently loose artifacts. Fishing, harvesting, research and organized removal of abandoned gear involve separate permissions and expertise; ordinary dive access does not authorize them.