A 60-year-old scuba diver has died in west Florida after becoming unresponsive following the third morning dive of a charter-boat trip. He had surfaced alone waving for help, but his recovery was delayed while the other five submerged divers were brought back onboard the boat.
Guy Charles Kerby from Goodlettsville, Tennessee, a Master Diver, was recovered from the sea about 1.5km out from Venice on the Gulf of Mexico coast on 17 June. According to police, he had still been alive while being brought ashore.
The boat captain, John Kreatsoulas, told Venice Police Department that he had dropped anchor for the initial dive of the morning at 8.50. The third dive had started about four hours later in choppy sea conditions with easterly winds. Underwater visibility had been limited to 2-3m.
The captain had seen Kerby surface alone before the other divers, about 150m from the boat. His SMB was inflated and his waving arms were taken as an indication that he wanted to be picked up as quickly as possible in what were worsening surface conditions.
Alerted the other divers
Kreatsoulas had responded to the diver’s signalling by revving the engine briefly to alert the other five submerged divers to return to the boat. He had picked them all up before he was able to get over to Kerby, he later told police.
By the time the boat had reached the diver he was found to be face-down in the water and unresponsive.
Brought onboard, Kerby was given CPR while a passenger called the emergency services. Paramedics from Venice Fire Rescue came aboard at a Venice marina and took over treatment as Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office’s marine patrol unit escorted the dive-boat to its dock.
A later funeral announcement suggests that Kerby had not been pronounced dead until two days later. A retired US Army veteran with 22 years of service and subsequent government contract work, he left behind a wife and five children.
Kreatsoulas and his wife Carrie operate a charter company called Fossil Junkies, using the 8m boat Sea Fox with capacity for six divers to hunt for shark and megalodon teeth and Ice Age fossils in the Venice area.
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