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Tourist drowned while on scuba dive near Pearl Island

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

A 46-year-old North Virginia woman drowned on Tuesday, police said.

The woman reportedly experienced breathing difficulties shortly after 12 noon on Tuesday while scuba diving on Pearl Island.

“As a result, the victim was retrieved from waters and transported to Princess Margaret Hospital, where she was seen and examined by a doctor, who pronounced her dead,” a police statement said.

This drowning is one of several this year.

On March 30, a 51-year-old Korean male cruise passenger was found unresponsive shortly after 1pm at Light House Beach at Ocean Cay.

According to reports, bystanders pulled the unresponsive male visitor from the waters. He was seen and examined by the ship’s doctor, who found no signs of life.

Then, on May 4, the lifeless body of a 67-year-old man was found floating at Prince George Wharf around 7.15am.

The man was reportedly a resident of Faith United Way in the Golden Gates area. Royal Bahamas Defence Force officers assisted in retrieving the body.

Twelve days later, the lifeless body of a 41-year-old Freeport man was found in waters near the government dock in north Bimini.

Shortly after 8am on Saturday, police received reports that a crew member on a fishing vessel was missing. Hours later, the man was found by police and taken to the Alice Town Police Station. He was examined by a doctor who pronounced him dead.

Comments

themessenger 10 months, 2 weeks ago

Did this unfortunate woman have scuba certification? Are the dives at Pearl Island overseen by a certified dive master? Or are they just renting out tanks to anyone without them having to provide their certification card? The waters around Pearl Island are less than twenty feet deep for the most part so no decompression would be required for a single tank dive, was she wearing a BC, did she have a buddy? Some of these fly by night operators who have no insurance need to be made examples of and held legally accountable.

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