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You think we have it bad opening day of ab season?

Florida: 3 dead, sevaral injured and 2 boats capsize as  2-day lobster mini-season opens

 

sun-sentinel.com staff & wires
Posted July 26 2006, 6:06 PM EDT

At least three people are dead and several others injured as the two-day lobster mini-season got on its way Wednesday. Seven others were rescued in the Port Everglades Inlet when two boats capsized.

Here is what authorities said about the deaths and other mini-season-related injuries:

A 58-year-old man drowned while diving for lobster about five miles off the Fort Pierce Inlet on Wednesday. His name and hometown were withheld pending notification of next of kin.

A 66-year-old woman from Coconut Grove had just entered the water at Big Pine Island when she reportedly began having some type of cardiac trouble. She was transported to Fishermen's Hospital in Marathon where she was pronounced dead.

Todd Hilkert, 36, from Palm Harbor, Florida was diving with a friend at Davis Reef about four miles off of Plantation Key. He and his friend were in about 15 feet of water scuba diving for lobster when they got separated. The friend surfaced and looked for Hilkert, but couldn't find him. He radioed for help and the U.S. Coast Guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission responded. FWC Officer Tom Hill found Hilkert on the bottom.

                                                                                                                            

Autopsies will be performed on the victims to determine the cause of deaths.
  • A diver suffered severed arteries when he was runover by a 23-foot boat and struck by its propeller around 7 a.m. in Marathon in the Florida Keys. He was taken to a hospital.

    "Apparently, a diver, once he was in the water, the boat he had just came off of backed up and the propeller sliced part of his leg," explained Lewis Diaz, of the U.S. Coast Guard.
  • A diver was found unconscious at Content Key around 12:15 p.m. He was given CPR and then taken to a hospital.

    "There are a lot of boaters out on the water," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Dana Warr. "It's probably quadruple the daily numbers."


  • The two-day mini-season runs from 12:01 a.m. Wednesday to midnight Thursday. The regular season is Aug. 6 to March 31.

    In the Fort Pierce case, divers on the boat told the Coast Guard that a friend was diving and didn't come back up, according to Operations Officer Sean Sewell. They went down for him and discovered him on the ocean floor, 60 feet down.

    Two search and rescue boats from the Fort Pierce Coast Guard station were called out about 9:35 a.m. and reached the boat about 10 minutes later, Sewell said. When they arrived, they found a diver on the deck of the boat and began administering CPR.

    The man was brought back to the Coast Guard station where he was pronounced dead. The Coast Guard is continuing to investigate the incident.

  • Two small boats that capsized in unrelated incidents around 9:40 a.m. at Port Everglades. Three people were aboard one boat, four on the other. No one was injured.

                    capsized boat in Port Everglades

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