WOW. News to me:
Quote:
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some or all of the boat's underwater metals, such as the propeller, stern drive, or through-hull fittings, will be energized, and electricity will radiate out from these fittings into the water. If the boat is in saltwater, the current will dissipate without doing damage unless a diver grabs hold of the energized metal.
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I worked my way through college as a scuba diver cleaning barnacles off boat bottoms, replacing zinc anodes, finding lost items that people dropped off the dock. I worked on many strange boats, some poorly maintained that were docked. I often had to grab on to and hold prop shafts etc. since barnacles adhered much better to metal-especially during tidal changes. (try pushing on something in the water without holding on and see what happens). Always wore neoprene gloves so my fingers didn't get cut up but those shredded quickly and fingertips were often exposed-not sure if that would have mattered much.
A lot of harbors have freshwater feeds and at low tide they can act more like freshwater-I could see the densities mixing like oil and water when the saltwater came back in.
Since motors like pumps switch on and off there is really no way to check for this without access into or under the boat so I don't see any safe solutions.
This is a common job for young kids around marinas and nobody I ever worked with, for, or any dive shop had any warnings up about this. It was good money but we all worked alone, quietly under the boat without even telling the marina we were there or they hassle you for not being a member and parking in the lot. This is a risk I never knew about and if this becomes wider known I can see it being banned (in water boat service) by marinas due to risk.