From Informal Safety Practice to Auditable Risk Governance

Diving and Snorkeling Operator Liability at Iboih Beach, Indonesia

Abstract

This article examines the legal responsibility of diving and snorkelling operators for tourist safety at Iboih Beach, Sabang, and develops a regulatory analysis through Indonesian tourism law, consumer protection law, recreational-diving standards, and maqāṣid al-sharīʿah. Using a qualitative socio-legal case-study design, the research combines interviews and field observation with doctrinal analysis. The empirical evidence indicates that operators and guides provide pre-activity safety explanations, equipment, supervision and incident response. It also reveals a significant governance weakness: the safety standard operating procedures used by operators are largely communicated orally and are not consistently formalised as written, auditable protocols. The field study records foreseeable risks including drowning, muscle cramps, equipment failure and the depletion of breathing gas, and describes an incident in which a cylinder was insufficiently checked before use. The article argues that operator responsibility should not be reduced to post-incident assistance. It includes ex ante duties of equipment inspection and maintenance, participant screening, certified supervision, disclosure of material risks, weather and sea-condition assessment, emergency preparedness, complaint mechanisms and appropriate accident protection. Indonesian consumer law reinforces tourists’ rights to safety, accurate information and compensation, while tourism regulation provides sector-specific safety and business standards for recreational diving. From a maqāṣid perspective, these obligations are most directly connected to ḥifẓ al-nafs (protection of life) and ḥifẓ al-māl (protection of property), with environmental stewardship supporting the wider public interest. The article concludes that Iboih operators should convert informal safety practice into written, verifiable and regularly reviewed risk-management systems. Such formalisation would strengthen legal accountability, consumer protection and the ethical objectives of Islamic law without treating maqāṣid as a substitute for positive law.