Anna Maria Island spearfisherman missing

[Bob]

Hard to believe even if he did go in after a fish that A. his body was not stuck inside. B. he got far enough away from his air to drown..... wounder how much air was in his tank. One report noted that the ther divers returned to the surface when they were almost out of air" I would rather think he was way to heavy as alot of spearos like to do and ran out of air panicked and dropped everything rather than just pulling the wieghts

The press doesn't know how to write about scuba diving accidents. When we return to the boat with 500 psi in our tanks, we are running low on air, but not in a life threatening situation as implied in the article. I have no idea what happened, but it sounds to me like the diver became entangled on the wreck, ditched his gear and didn't make it to the surface. That's pure speculation on my part. I know many divers that spear, and I don't know a single one that would willingly take their gear off and go in a wreck after a fish, doesn't make since to me. Hopefully we can all learn from the accident investigation. In the meantime, my thoughts and prayers go out to friends and family of the deceased. almtree: Bob

 

[DanBMW]

No specific details, but in the St. Petersburg Times this morning, his body has been found. Wonder if they were diving / spear fishing solo or in buddy teams?

 

[Missdirected]

We attempted to leave out of Clearwater Beach on 7/3/2009 at 8:00am but the seas were too rough, maybe 3-4 ft at the last marker in the channel so we turned back.

Hard to say what gear floats, some of the newer light weight spear guns are made of plastic and slightly positivly bouyant as to float if they get loose.


While no details have been released as to what might have happened the first thing that comes to my mind is , as with most spearfishers, he was likely alone hunting and ran OOA. Without any details to support this, its just a guess.

If anyone hears more details please post them.

See post 11.

 

[Splash-X]

Missdirected,

I did read through the article posted in #11 prior to posting my comments. All the article says is that the search was called off because other divers had located the body. Was there more that I missed like if he was diving alone, if it was presumed he ran out of air, etc?

 

[Missdirected]

Missdirected,

I did read through the article posted in #11 prior to posting my comments. All the article says is that the search was called off because other divers had located the body. Was there more that I missed like if he was diving alone, if it was presumed he ran out of air, etc?

No just thought you hadn't seen the report. I haven't heard of anymore details. I was kinda hoping SupraSteve might report back...

 

[Rick Murchison]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Condolences moved to condolences thread here. This thread is for discussion of the mishap.

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[suprasteve]

I just sent MissDirected a PM with the same info, but here it goes for the rest:
The boat the missing diver had been on putted up to us while we were anchored up Friday afternoon. The men in the boat said that the coast guard had found his BC and speargun. I didn't ask at the time whether BC included the tank and regs, which I would assume, or if somehow the BC was separate from them. The other three in the boat were shooting identical metal guns, same size, same length. It's quite possible the missing diver's gun was the same, but I don't know that for sure. I would think most guns sink, but i do not know what was found floating or on the bottom. They did mention he was wearing a white t-shirt, which has already been stated here.

 

[NJ to FLA]

I'm pretty sure a lot of guns float

 

[DandyDon]

Got to wonder why he would remove his BC, but I don't guess we're likely to find out? It sounds like he was not wearing any neoprene to aid in floating without it, and in such warm water I can understand that.

Is it common for speargun hunters to dive alone? From the discussion here it sounds like that was the dive plan, and he was indeed - an all too common action in diver deaths.

 

[Boats]

The speculation for the family, must be the hardest. As said, a horrible thing for all involved. Words such as "condolences" are what must be said, but just don't seem to be enough.

I searched for information, but found little. If something is posted, would someone pass it on to me?

My thanks.