neat. seems they could maybe use a smaller boat for situations like this. but, pretty damn cool!
Three divers and a Captain, 3 tanks, 3 bouyancy compensators, 3 goodie bags with mask, snorkle, fins and gloves, 3 weight belts, the 500' of rope and probably some misc. stuff, underwater flashlights, drinks, etc. The boat would have a full load.
I never took more than 4 diving with me but we had 2 tanks each. They probably had more tanks for back-up in the pick-up.
With the water temps that they were dealing with they would have been doing dry suit diving, no wetsuits in those temps.