Lobster diver, 79, dies on mini-season’s opening day

A 79-year-old Florida man died Wednesday while hunting for lobster off Bahia Honda in the Florida Keys.

It was the only death reported in the Keys during the first of two lobster mini-season diving days that continue through July 27. Complete details about the second day were not available at press time Thursday afternoon.

The man, William Biddle of Temple Terrace, was snorkeling when he had “difficulty in the water and did not survive,” said Carol Lyn Parrish, public information coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s South Region.

“He was snorkeling while being towed behind a boat,” local FWC Capt. David Dipre said. While the cause of death seems to be some type of medical emergency, the incident is being investigated by the FWC as a boating-related incident.

The man was not breathing when brought to shore by a personal watercraft around 3 p.m. Wednesday at Bahia Honda State Park around mile marker 36.8. Attempts to revive the man were not successful.

Multiple agencies Thursday morning searched for about 20 minutes for a missing scuba diver offshore of Bahia Honda in the Lower Keys. FWC crews were joined by Monroe County Sheriff’s Office boats and the U.S. Coast Guard.

FWC officers pulled the man aboard one of their boats about five miles off shore, said Deputy Becky Herrin, Sheriff’s Office media relations officer.

Other incidents from Wednesday’s first lobstering day of mini-season reported by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office:

▪ A 16-year-old girl suffered a serious hand injury while climbing off a boat about 1:20 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office reported. She was brought to shore near mile marker 74 on Lower Matecumbe Key and taken to Mariners Hospital. Additional details are pending but one of her fingers might have been severed.

▪ Ambulance crews and deputies went to Veterans Park at the south end of the Seven Mile Bridge around 8:50 a.m. to a report of an adult male diver having breathing difficulties. No additional information was available.

▪ Marine enforcement officers responded to a squabble on the water near the Seven Mile Bridge, near mile marker 46. Apparently it involved one boater cutting the anchor line of another. Officers calmed the boaters and no arrests were made.

▪ Nicolas Moreira, 78, of Marathon was charged with with two misdemeanor counts early Wednesday after deputies at the 33rd Street boat ramp in Marathon were told that a bullynet boat was making repeated trips from shore. Deputies reported seeing Moreira place lobster in an underwater trap near shore around 2:30 a.m. They found 33 live lobster in the trap that were released.

Dipre and several lobster hunters said it appeared there were fewer boats on Keys waters Wednesday than in a typical mini-season.

“That doesn’t mean it’s not busy. It means it’s slightly more manageable,” Dipre said Thursday. “I expect we’ll see more boats come down when the regular season opens” on Aug. 6. That season runs for eight months.

This story was originally published July 27, 2017 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Lobster diver, 79, dies on mini-season’s opening day."