Two Taiwanese divers are reported to have died after entering an underwater cave or cavern at a depth of around 30m in western Japan.
The men were diving off Okinawa’s main island yesterday (1 August). According to regional media they were a 28-year-old surnamed Zhang, who had travelled to Okinawa with four friends, and a 24-year-old instructor surnamed Shao.
They were diving from a boat that had left Seragaki fishing port and headed to a point about 800m north of Manza Beach, near the town of Onna. The Manza area is known among scuba divers for its underwater topographical features including caves and caverns, and sometimes strong currents.
On what was said in one report to have been their third dive of the day, Zhang and Shao had entered the water with three of the other Taiwanese divers but had failed to emerge from the cave.
Another instructor had brought the three remaining divers back to the dive-boat, and at around 3pm the captain notified
Nago Coast Guard that two divers were missing.
A search and rescue dive-team eventually located the two men inside the cave at around 5.30pm. They were brought up and taken to hospital, but were pronounced dead.
No details have yet been released about their cause of death, and the Coast Guard has launched an investigation.
A fortnight earlier a Taiwanese scuba diver in his 50s died
following a dive at the Ruifang Bat Cave site near New Taipei City.
divernet.com
