If non-diving friends &/or family in Utah are following the thread, it might help to point out a couple of things divers take for granted in Cozumel but the general public wouldn't know.
1.) Cozumel tends to be drift diving - the current carries you along as a group, usually without much swimming. The strength of the current varies, particularly with how many feet you are hovering out from the reef.
2.) On land, you have full peripheral vision, people around you are in a 2-dimensional position (in front of, behind, or to your side, but not above or below you unless they climb trees), you can hear sounds and localize where people are and you are relaxed, not task loaded, and it's easier to monitor sounds and what's going on around you.
3.) When scuba diving, it's a 3-dimensional environment. Another diver can be behind or off to the side, but also a few feet higher or lower than you. A scuba mask cuts off some of your peripheral vision. You can't talk to each other, so what sounds divers make are limited and not distinctive (you can't just holler 'Hey, Joe, over here'), and sound travels so fast in water that you can't tell which direction it's coming from; it sounds like it's coming from all around you. The environment is very interesting. Diving involves monitoring a number of things, such as buoyancy to hover in the water, remaining air supply, depth, where other people are, animals on the reef, etc... All this in an alien environment. In other words, it's easy for a diver to get 'task loaded.' A task loaded diver can be hard-put to notice or keep up with other things.
Bottom Line: It's way more challenging for a pair of divers to stay together than 2 people walking side-by-side on land.
I mention this because as people pour over the thread, they may see questions about 'Where was her dive buddy?' Most divers dive in buddy pairs, though people vary widely in how strict they are with the buddy relationship. One could get the impression that the buddy should be constantly within arm's length and glancing at her every 10 seconds, or some such. The rigorousness of the buddy system, and adherence to it, are often discussed on this forum but not everyone agrees on the ideal and real world dives often don't follow the ideal well.
The factors I mentioned could've impacted both the deceased and her dive buddy. A diver's death can be psychologically debilitating for the buddy, and it's easy to gloss over how quickly and easily people can get separated from each other.
Richard.
