Solo diver missing Port Phillip Bay - Victoria

[DandyDon]

[h=1]Father-of-three Andrew Houston missing after scuba diving in Port Phillip Bay[/h]

AN experienced diver who is missing after scuba fishing in Port Phillip Bay yesterday afternoon once survived a shark attack in the same waters. Police have launched a major search for 52-year-old Andrew Houston who was last seen scuba diving about 100m offshore from the Brighton Baths yesterday afternoon.
He left yesterday at 12pm and told family and friends that he would be home about 4pm.
They contacted police when he failed to return by 7pm.
The diver, who was alone, was carrying full scuba equipment including a tank. The father-of-three regularly dived in the reef and relatives said he grew up in the water.
Mr Houston's mother, Caroline Wilson, arrived at the scene this morning after being alerted to the heartbreaking news after hearing it on a radio bulletin.
"I was lying in bed and I heard them say a diver in his 50s from Carnegie had gone missing off Brighton," Ms Wilson said.
"I put the pieces together and just thought, 'Oh my God, that's Andrew'.
"Then I saw a text message from Livinia (Andrew's partner) asking me to ring her...I didn't know what to say. That's how I got the news."
Ms Wilson said she now understood why her son had not contacted her to pass on his Mother's Day wishes yesterday.

(continued at link above)

 

[Griffo]

I love how they focus on his previous "shark attack". Exactly how he managed to get a Port Jackson to latch into his wetsuit was certainly the talk of the town when it happened, but the poor bugger is missing.

 

[DandyDon]

Body found: Body of 'shark attack' diver found in Victoria

An experienced Melbourne scuba diver who once made news by being bitten by a small shark in Port Phillip Bay has died at one of his regular diving spots.
A police helicopter spotted the body of 51-year-old Andrew Houston, of Carnegie, on the sea floor in his diving gear, about 50 metres from shore at Brighton Bay.
Senior Sergeant James Dalton says it's not clear what happened to the father of three, who went for a solo dive on Sunday.
"We don't know how he's died or how he's got into difficulty, so that'll be for the coroner," he said.
His mother, Caroline Wilson, had waited near the shoreline with his two daughters, after hearing of his disappearance on the radio.
(continued at link above)

 

[Gef-Engel]

Here's a link to the story of him being found. Diver missing at Brighton | Body found this sort of stuff is unfortunate but he's broken one of the fundamental rules of diving. Never dive alone. Got a bit of inside info from a friend of a friend in the police divers, apparently to them he looked like he'd "died suddenly". No evidence of struggle, animal attack would suggest heart attack, stroke etc. It's unfortunate, but had he been diving with somebody they could have recognised the signs and at least attempted to get him ashore. Tragic.

 

[buddhasummer]

Here's a link to the story of him being found. Diver missing at Brighton | Body found this sort of stuff is unfortunate but he's broken one of the fundamental rules of diving. Never dive alone. Got a bit of inside info from a friend of a friend in the police divers, apparently to them he looked like he'd "died suddenly". No evidence of struggle, animal attack would suggest heart attack, stroke etc. It's unfortunate, but had he been diving with somebody they could have recognised the signs and at least attempted to get him ashore. Tragic.

Unless you are a trained solo diver and all that goes with it.

 

[bbarnett51]

Blaming it in solo diving is pure speculation. Divers pass away when buddy diving as well. There are very few prepared buddies in my experience.

The main thing is we lost a diver and a father. Who knows what happened. I would like to think he had the best dive of his life and had an unrelated health event.

 

[timakempton]

Andrew Huston was an extremely experienced diver with hundreds if not thousands of dives, any speculation as to what happened is pointless until the coroner determines a cause of death. At this point all that is known is that he was on a solo dive in very shallow water and that his body was found unmarked on the bottom 50m off Brighton beach the water temp was about 17°C the POLICE are baffled as to how he died.

 

[peterbj7]

I have made countless solo dives, some of them very deep and some of them very long, and feel safer than when I'm with (advanced) students.

 

[DandyDon]

A new twist to the story - poaching: Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian

AN experienced diver found drowned near the Brighton Baths on Monday was carrying a huge illegal stash of abalone. Andrew Houston, 51, was only about 50m off the Middle Brighton shore when he was found lying face-down in full scuba diving equipment including a wetsuit, weight-belt, air compressor, tank and mask about 12.30pm following a major police search.

Search and rescue divers also discovered the body with a bag containing 30kg of abalone.
Mr Houston didn't have an abalone licence.
The Department of Primary Industries said licenced abalone divers were only permitted to take five individual abalone from specific waters on nominated days, of which no more than two can be greenlip abalone.
Search and Rescue Squad Leading Senior Constable Matt Roberts – one of divers who made the grim find – said he was stunned to find the abalone.
"When we initially got the job we weren’t even thinking about abalone. That part of the bay is not a well-known dive site," he said.

"We were just focused on finding him."

While autopsy results will not be known for some weeks, it has not been ruled out that the weight of the illegal haul could have contributed to the the Carnegie man's death.

Sen-Constable Roberts said while the abalone stash would be part of the police inquiry, Mr Houston could have run into trouble underwater in a number of ways.

"I wouldn’t say he was weighed or pinned down underwater, especially as it's a place where things can be a bit lighter, but he would have had a bit more weight than normal," he said.

"We’ll look into that as well as the inquest with his equipment and any underlying medical conditions.

"Quite often in these situations it can be a heart attack or an underlying medical condition which happens to manifest underwater and is completely unrelated to diving.

"You don’t have as much margin for error underwater."

During the search, Bayside Police Senior Sergeant James Dalton said Mr Houston, a father of three daughters, was a "very experienced" diver who frequently dived 50m offshore from the Brighton Baths.

Diving for abalone without a licence has significant penalties, Sen-Constable Roberts said.

"Initial inquires reveal Mr Houston is not a licenced abalone diver and there are quite hefty fines for the theft of abalone," he said.

He said illegal practices involving theft of abalone was an "on-going" problem in Victoria thanks to high prices on the black market.
Mr Houston had trouble in Port Phillip Bay two years before his tragic death when he used a spanner and piece of wood to dislodge a Port Jackson shark that latched onto his leg for 20 minutes.
He wrestled with the shark for 10 minutes while in the water, before a passerby helped him into shore.
The metre-long Port Jackson shark hung on for another 10 minutes until Mr Houston was able to prise it off with the spanner.

He then released the shark back into the sea.
"When it first bit me I freaked out," Mr Houston said at the time.
"Someone got me a spanner because we just couldn't get it to let go."
The shark eventually gave in and Mr Houston threw it back in the water.

 

[clownfishsydney]

He would not have been able to lift 30 kg of abalone even with the best BCD (considering tank, weights etc).