Cane Bay fatality - St. Croix, US Virgin Islands

[DandyDon]

Odd sounding story the way it's told...

Scuba Diver Found Dead on Arrival at Cane Bay on St. Croix

A man was found dead on arrival at Cane Bay on St. Croix after a scuba diving incident, the V.I. Police Department reported Wednesday.

stthomassource.com

A man was found dead on arrival at Cane Bay on St. Croix after a scuba diving incident, the V.I. Police Department reported Wednesday.

On Sunday, officers were dispatched to Cane Bay, where they spoke to a woman who told them she had been diving with her husband and they came to the surface after seeing a shark. The woman said they decided to continue diving; however, her dive gear would not allow her to descend, according to the police report.

Her husband descended without her even though she tried to get his attention. After being unable to locate her husband, people were called to help. The man was eventually located and escorted by dinghy to the shore, the police report stated.

Emergency Medical Technicians were on scene and found no signs of life. The deceased was identified as 64-year-old Paul Evans, the report stated.

This case is presently under investigation by the Criminal Investigation Bureau. Anyone with information can call 911 CIB Tip Line at (340)778-4850.

 

[DiveProKoko]

That IS odd....surfaced after seeing a shark? Her gear wouldn't allow her to descend, but she had already descended previously? They didn't re-descend together and he ended up separated and ultimately died? No idea what happened here but this situation wreaks of inexperience, etc. This story says otherwise....

Shark Sighting Precedes Fatal Diving Incident At Cane Bay On St. Croix, VIPD Reports

 

[okrunner]

Heart attack. Story as it is told is odd but what happened is routine heart attack which usually happens at the surface.

 

[trstange]

Heart attack. Story as it is told is odd but what happened is routine heart attack which usually happens at the surface.

Where did you get that information?

 

[drrich2]

From the article @DiveProKoko linked:

"In distress, Ms. Evans said she screamed and was eventually pulled ashore by an unknown individual."

Were they shore diving? Why did she scream? Why did she need to be pulled ashore?

One thing to note...I had one shore dive at Cane Bay years ago, and it was a really long swim out to the reef. I didn't see a shark on that dive, but saw several on boat dives off the north coast of St. Croix, and Caribbean reef sharks are a common sight.

It can be harder to descend from the surface late in a dive; I wonder whether her gear was really dysfunctional, or was she underweighted?

 

[rmorgan]

You’re right—it’s a longish swim. I’m surprised by the 175’—that’s well beyond the float and over the lip of the wall for sure, I think it’s around 40’ there. A sad mishap.

 

[okrunner]

Where did you get that information?

Educated assumption on my part and that of others. See this thread which includes some first-hand reports. . Anyways, no shark bite, no equipment malfunction, which leaves generally the number 1 reason people 60 and over die scuba diving which is cardiac arrest. Essentially, if there was no equipment malfunction, no shark bite, not trapped in an overhead environment, no boat accident, it leaves very little other possibilities than cardiac arrest when you put it up statistically against diving fatalities as reported year after year by DAN. There just isn't any other explanation.

 

[Ayisha]

...Anyways, no shark bite, no equipment malfunction, which leaves generally the number 1 reason people 60 and over die scuba diving which is cardiac arrest. Essentially, if there was no equipment malfunction, no shark bite, not trapped in an overhead environment, no boat accident, it leaves very little other possibilities than cardiac arrest when you put it up statistically against diving fatalities as reported year after year by DAN. There just isn't any other explanation.

Everyone dies of cardiac arrest. It simply means the heart stops beating.

You may be thinking of myocardial infarction or heart attack.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

That IS odd....surfaced after seeing a shark? Her gear wouldn't allow her to descend, but she had already descended previously? They didn't re-descend together and he ended up separated and ultimately died? No idea what happened here but this situation wreaks of inexperience, etc. This story says otherwise....

Shark Sighting Precedes Fatal Diving Incident At Cane Bay On St. Croix, VIPD Reports

I'm with you on lack of experience for the wife. The linked article only says the deceased was an experienced diver. While she may have been underweighted, I wonder if there was a user error issue with her BCD?

We may be missing something here: Perhaps she realized he was in trouble when she started screaming?

 

[rmorgan]

What we don’t know is how he got to 175’. The wall drops off there at 40’, and drops pretty much straight down to a couple thousand feet. It’s understood to be vertiginous. An accidental solo diver, maybe frustrated, could have become disoriented and swim down instead of up. Whatever the chain of events, it’s awful to see an easy holiday dive become ruinously tragic, not to mention it being because a shark was swimming by.