A two-day air and sea search for a fish-collecting rebreather diver missing in the remote Coral Sea off Australia’s north-west coast has been suspended.
Tim Bennett, 65, skipper of the dive-boat Clearwater, was reported missing at around 4.30pm on Monday, 15 December. He had failed to surface from a deep rebreather dive at Heralds Surprise Reef, about 280km south-east of Cairns in Queensland.
“Tim was undertaking a short reconnaissance dive of only three hours to survey a site for suitability,” stated Bennett’s employer of the past 21 years, aquarium supplier Cairns Marine. “Tim was carrying two bail-out bottles of trimix and had staged a third bottle of air at an appropriate depth.”
Emergency response procedures were initiated when Bennett failed to reappear, with the authorities notified and searches conducted under water, topside and from the air.
“The crew of the vessel Clearwater are to be commended for their outstanding performance throughout,” stated Cairns Marine, which said that some of them had dived as deep as 80m in search of their missing skipper.
Recognised worldwide
Bennett was “recognised worldwide for his professionalism and experience within the industry”, stated Cairns Marine, the biggest coral-harvesting operator on the Great Barrier Reef. The company describes itself as “global leader in the sustainable and ethical provision of aquatic wildlife – premium corals and fishes from Down Under”.
According to its director Lyle Squire, Bennett was a diver “in a class of his own” and they had dived as deep as 160m together in search of marine species unknown to science. “I probably have more respect for Tim as a diver than anybody else I know,” he told ABC News.
“There are no divers in the country presently able to go down to that depth and even look for him. One thing I can say with absolute conviction is that it would not have been because of human error. He’s too well prepared, too professional.”
Job of his dreams
Bennett was originally from Perth but in the 1990s moved to Queensland to work initially in the crayfish and pearl-fishing industries before becoming involved in fish-collecting. At least three fish he had discovered had been named after him (Plectranthias bennetti, Tosanoides bennetti and Bodianus bennetti).
“He was the only person I know who genuinely loved his job – it was the job of his dreams,” said Bennett’s daughter Simone. “We all knew the dangers that came with it, but he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“Dad is known industry-wide, and condolences will come from all around the world not just because he was exceptional at what he did, but because he was a genuinely great person to be around. He was generous with his knowledge, a mentor to many, and deeply respected.”
“He’s in his happy place but I’m shattered,” Bennett’s wife Jena O’Connor told ABC News. The couple lived in the town of Kuranda, and had four children. “I’m devastated. I don’t want to even think about going forward without him. He was my best friend. He was one of the kindest, funniest, sweetest human beings on the planet.”
Queensland Police, Workplace Health & Safety Queensland and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority are investigating the incident.
160m is quite deep , it’d make more sense to use a machine