keys diving deaths

[deepstops]

Two die in separate dive-related accidents

By KeysNet Staff
Posted - Monday, February 28, 2011 10:58 AM EST

Two tourists died in separate Florida Keys dive incidents since Thursday.

Sunday off Key Largo, 64-year-old New Jersey resident Piers Harley died when he reportedly swam into a Portuguese Man o' War, says the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

Deputy Becky Herrin says Donald Jarvis, captain of the commercial dive boat HMS Minnow, reported that Harley had just finished his second dive of the morning about 11 a.m. Harley was reportedly swimming back to the boat on his back when Jarvis saw he was about to run into the Man o' War, which can sting with venom. He yelled at Harley, but Harley "ran into the Man o' War and then appeared to go limp in the water," Herrin says.

He was pulled onto the boat, not breathing, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed. When the boat got to shore, Harley was taken to Mariners Hospital in Tavernier, where he was pronounced dead.

Thursday afternoon, Clermont, Fla., resident Cheryl Chastek, 50, died while diving off Looe Key in the Lower Keys. Herrin says Chastek and her husband were diving from their 24-foot Rinker.

Herrin says they had just donned their scuba equipment and climbed into the water when the husband reportedly noticed something wrong with his wife. He told authorities her regulator wasn't in her mouth and she appeared to be panicking. She lost consciousness and he had to pull her on board the boat.

The husband yelled to a nearby dive boat for help, then began performing CPR. An emergency medical technician who was on the other boat then took over. When they got to shore, paramedics took Chastek to Fishermen's Hospital in Marathon. She was put on life support but died Friday morning.

Homicide Detective Mark Coleman is investigating.

 

[reefman]

in todays key west citizen,


Was diver allergic to man-of-war? | KeysNews.com



reefman
key largo

 

[trtldvr]

Is there a separate thread for the woman's death in Looe Key? It looks like a homicide detective is investigating her death...

Detective Coleman is the Dive team leader as well as a homicide detective.

Safe Dives
Trtldvr

 

[KeysCuda]

an update:
Capt Jarvis of Minnow says he doubts that Piers Harley, a dive instructor, actually was stung.
He says the report description of Mr. Harley running into the man-o-war was inaccurate; that he warned the diver away from the jelly and Mr. Harley fell unconscious as he returned to the boat.

While Jarvis said it was possible that the diver (clad in full wetsuit) was stung by a tendril - and that's what he told the officer on scene, because it is a possibility that the medical examiner should know - Jarvis personally saw no evidence of a sting and doubts that a sting triggered the fatality.

ps- Piers Harley is actual name, per dive operator

 

[DandyDon]

It figures that the Minnow skipper could have been misquoted. Now sounds like both losses could have been medical, altho there are other possibilities still.

 

[divebott]

More information is available at keysnews.com.

 

[mselenaous]

Here's the article Divebott mentioned:
Was diver allergic to man-of-war? | KeysNews.com

Was diver allergic to man-of-war?
Coroner investigates cause of second dive death in a week
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA AND ROBERT SILK Citizen Staff
[SIZE=+0]The Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office is trying to determine if a Portuguese man-of-war played a role in the death of a diver off Key Largo on Sunday.


New Jersey resident Harley Piers, 64, died late Sunday after encountering the man-of-war while diving. The medical examiner was still performing an autopsy on Piers late Monday and had not determined a specific cause of death, according to the Medical Examiner' Office. A staff member who answered the phone said investigators are aware of his interaction with the man-of-war and will be performing tests to determined if it played a role in his death.


Florida Keys beaches have been awash with the poisonous marine invertebrates for weeks as prevailing winds have pushed them ashore.


Piers was on his second dive on the Key Largo-based HMS Minnow. Minnow Capt. Jeff Jarvis had warned him about the man-of-wars, Jarvis told The Citizen.


"He turned around and kicked away from it and started kicking back toward the boat, and that's when he got distressed," said Jarvis, who added that he's not sure whether Piers even touched the creature's long, stinging tentacles.


Portuguese man-of-wars are found in Keys waters year-round, but their population usually swells in winter and early spring, when southeasterly and northwesterly winds push them out of the Gulf Stream and closer to shore, said Scott Donahue, a marine biologist at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.


Man-of-war stings are usually painful, but rarely fatal. However, much like the stings of bees or the bites of ants, people have varying degrees of susceptibility to man-of-war stings, said Donahue, who added that in his 15 years in the Keys he has never heard of a diver or snorkeler dying from a man-of-war sting.


Jarvis, too, said he has never heard of such a death in his 12 years in the dive business. He said he doesn't think Piers died from man-of-war stings, especially considering how little time transpired after possible contact with the tentacles before he went into trauma.


"I couldn't imagine it occurring that quickly," Jarvis said.


Piers also had no welts or marks on his face, the captain added.


Officials have been posting warning signs about man-of-wars at Keys beaches in recent weeks. Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Patrk officials said there are days when hundreds of the man-of-wars line the beach. Having received numerous reports of stings on the beach, they are posting photographs of man-of-wars along with the warnings.


"Our main concern is the kids picking them up and thinking they are pretty blue balloons and getting stung," Park Ranger Kip Blevin said.


Despite their appearance, man-of-wars are not jellyfish but siphonophores. They differ from jellyfish in that they are not actually a single creature, but a colony of organisms made up of minute individuals called zooids.


Piers is the second diver to die in recent days on dive trips off the Keys. Cheryl Chastek, 50, of Clermont, Fla., died after diving with her husband Thursday afternoon on Looe Key Reef.


The couple had just donned their scuba equipment and climbed into the water when he said he noticed something was wrong with his wife, sheriff's reports say. He said her regulator was not in her mouth and she appeared to be panicking. She lost consciousness and he pulled her on board the boat, investigators said.


She was eventually taken to Fishermen's Hospital where she was placed on life support. On Friday morning, she was pronounced dead at that hospital.


tohara@keysnews.com


rsilk@keysnews.com
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