QUEENSLAND, Australia (21 May 2004) -- A HOLLYWOOD movie based on the disappearance of American divers Thomas and Eileen Lonergan will paint the North's reef operators as reckless cowboys and harm the region's tourism industry, according to a local tourism leader. Col McKenzie, executive director of the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators and spokesman for Dive Queensland, has launched a scathing attack on the new film Open Water, which claims its story is loosely based on the disappearance of the Lonergans from the Great Barrier Reef in 1998 - an incident that attracted world media coverage. Mr McKenzie said the movie was a "slick effort" to cash in on a family's grief and an inaccurate representation of the mystery based on fiction rather than fact. "This is just a piece of entertainment fiction. It's not based on fact, it's based on supposition," he said. The Lonergans vanished without a trace after being left behind at Fish City near St Crispins Reef while diving from skipper Geoff "Jack" Nairn's vessel Outer Edge on January 25, 1998. Mr Nairn was charged with unlawfully killing the couple through criminal negligence after a coronial hearing found they died at sea, probably by drowning or shark attack. He was later acquitted of manslaughter charges and the case has been closed since. Mr McKenzie said the movie, set to open in the US in August, would portray Great Barrier Reef tourism operators as reckless. "This will show us as cowboys," he said. "We've got the best safety record in the world. We have a fatality - normally a heart attack - one per 400,000 people who go scuba diving. In other countries it's one per 100,000. We are four times safer than anywhere else. "We are very, very safety conscious and this is just going to use us as a scapegoat for some company to make a few quick dollars. "We've got about a $50 million diving market and this will impact that very seriously." Publicity for the film describes the plot: "A young couple goes scuba diving only to find that they've been accidentally left stranded in the middle of the ocean. Suddenly, the couple's tranquil vacation has turned into an exhausting trial fraught with terror and fear." | 
