MIAMI, Florida (31 July 2008) — It's Florida's annual 2-day lobster hunt and people are dying to put a couple of big bugs on their dinner plates. Florida officials told CDNN that so far this year, three divers are confirmed dead and 2 more are missing. The third death happened near Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys on Thursday morning. Carlos Urruchaga, 32, from Miami, died after he encountered problems while diving with a hookah rig off a private boat. Friends aboard the boat said Urruchaga surfaced in distress and was unconscious by the time they pulled him back aboard. They called for help and initiated CPR, but Urruchaga never regained consciousness and he was pronounced dead at Fishermen's Hospital according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. On Wednesday, Robert Canada, 48, from Lake Worth, disappeared while diving off the town of Gulf Stream. Delray Beach police officers responded to a call for help and found the missing diver at a depth of about 55 feet. He was brought ashore at Boynton Beach where he was pronounced dead. Also on Wednesday, Randall Malcolm, 54, from Miami-Dade County, died after he resurfaced from a lobster dive about four miles of Key Largo. | | It happens every year. People are dying for lobsters in Florida's annual 2-day mini-season. Authorities are still searching for two other divers including an unidentified 63-year-old Indian River man who disappeared while diving for lobsters off Vero Beach, and 33-year-old Yosmany Gonzalez who failed to resurface from a lobster dive off Cape Florida lighthouse. |
