Mesophotic zone research fatality - Solomon islands

[ccrprospect]

More details published.

"Joshua Copus, a Curator at Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii suffered from loss of consciousness at approximately 60m (200ft). He was diving a Poseidon SE7EN rebreather on an ichthyological ("Ikhthus" meaning fish, "logos" meaning study) project. His CCR diving companions immediately recognised the problem and worked to bring the unconscious diver to the surface, where he could be assisted by the surface-support team. Copus was promptly given CPR and, despite the best efforts of the team, he could not be revived".

"As a result of this incident, a number of Diving Safety Officers issued a "cease and desist" statement to their dive teams, instructing them that until further notice rebreather diving is no longer authorised. Divers should not read anything into this—this is standard operating practice in the scientific diving community after a serious incident or a fatality. This is known a "diving stand-down."

Scientific diving community mourn loss of future talent

 

[uwxplorer]

The article tells a bit more than the excerpt above. In particular that the team had already accrued some deco obligations. How much is not clear. What is clear is that the employer will try to get to the bottom of the accident. Whether anything will transpire from the findings is another matter...
The loss of a young fellow with such a promising career begs the question: could not most of this research be done with ROVs?