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From this morning's Daily News
Panic may have led to death.
Thats not quite the way it works. It sounds more like Myers was making a dive to gain depth progression. This is not training, but rather dives made with a more experienced buddy.From this morning's Daily News:EXPERIENCED: The SeaLife Center scientist apparently had trouble with his weight belt.
By JAMES HALPIN
jhalpin@adn.com
(Published: September 27, 2007)
An Alaska SeaLife Center diver who died in Resurrection Bay after his tank ran out of air may have panicked while trying to remove his weight belt, Alaska State Troopers said Wednesday.
Matthew Myers, 44, died Tuesday near Fox Island about 5 miles from Seward while he and a dive master, Bob Hicks, were out on a training dive, part of a series that would have certified Myers as a scientific diver, said Tim Dillon, a SeaLife Center spokesman.
Becoming a scientific diver should have nothing to do with open-water diver, advanced diver, or any other recreational credential. Nor, for that matter, should it have anything to do with sample collection. It will be important to find out just what Myers actual training background was.From this morning's Daily News:Myers was certified as an open-water diver in 1982 and was certified an advanced diver in 1984, Dillon said. Becoming a scientific diver involves the same skills, with the added requirements of knowing how to collect samples while diving in certain conditions, among other things.
The accident description is rather strange, again we need to have more information.
I assume that what they mean is that there are 25 divers, each of whom makes about 100 dives each year. A dive has to make at least 12 dives to stay on the rolls.From this morning's Daily News:The SeaLifeCenter has 25 regular divers who conduct about 100 open-water dives each year, Dillon said. Jewett, who works closely with the center, said he has known Hicks for years and called him a highly competent diver.
The UAF website has Myers listed as a PhD candidate.From this morning's Daily News:Myers was finishing up a master's degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks' School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Dillon said, and he was working at the SeaLifeCenter as a marine mammal scientist. He had been employed there since 2001, Dillon said.