BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS (2 Apr 2008) — A coroner's inquest into the death of an American tourist who disappeared in December 2007 while scuba diving heard testimony that searchers found the victim's partly eaten body parts surrounded by tiger sharks. The victim, Wayne Francis Johanning, 53, disappeared on December 19, 2007 while scuba diving off Green Bay, Jost Van Dyke with his wife, two sons and a friend. After the group called for help, BVI Search and Rescue and the U.S. Coast Guard launched a massive air and sea search spanning 373 nautical miles that included at least one helicopter, a cutter, a private airplane and several smaller vessels. The day after Johanning went missing, BVI Search and Rescue divers found the victim's body parts near the dive site where he was last seen. Sharks ate scuba diver A five-member jury heard testimony from three sea rescue volunteers of VISAR indicating that tiger sharks were eating the diver when they found the body. The jury also heard the results of an autopsy performed on the victim's remains on December 24, 2007. Shark feeding is legal in the British Virgin Islands unlike Florida, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands and other popular holiday destinations where authorities banned fish feeding to enhance public safety and protect marine wildlife from dive industry profiteers. The inquest has been adjourned "to facilitate testimony of overseas witnesses." © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK | 
