CAYMAN ISLANDS — An American tourist vanished while scuba diving with Divers Down off Grand Cayman Island. The crew of a dive boat owned and operated by Divers Down alerted authorities of a missing diver emergency yesterday morning after they failed to find Charles Lynn Titus, a 60-year-old Las Vegas resident who was visiting the Caymans with his wife. The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, other dive shop boats and private vessels are searching for the missing American tourist. Witnesses told CDNN the scuba diving accident happened during a dive at Eagle Ray Pass, North Wall, just outside the Main Channel. In April Brendan Joseph Neilson, 58, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, who was visiting the Caymans with his fiancee, also died while scuba diving with Divers Down. In the aftermath of that accident, Steve Surrey, owner and operator Divers Down, declined to comment on the diver's death, and why the company failed to notify authorities of a missing diver emergency until after the crew of a sport fishing boat called 911 to report they had found Neilson floating unconscious in the sea off Dolphin Pointe, West Bay. In December 2008 David Guy Stuart, 57, a tourist from Oklahoma also died while scuba diving with Divers Down. Dive operators ignoring safety regulations According to liquor store owner Steve Broadbelt, a strident local developer who also owns the Ocean Frontiers dive shop and heads CITA's Watersports Committee, dive operators in the Cayman Islands typically ignore government regulations aimed at enhancing diver safety. One of the government safety regulations they ignore requires dive boat operators to keep at least one crew onboard, a safety precaution that is common at many popular dive destinations around the world. The regulation under the Port Authority Law states: "At least one person shall remain on board and act as lookout on any dive–boat or other vessel whilst divers therefrom are down." Broadbelt said he and other local dive operators refuse to comply with the regulation because they don't want the government telling them how to run their businesses and because such regulations have the potential to make their dive shops unprofitable. Unsustainable tourism Once considered the best scuba diving holiday destination in the Caribbean, the Cayman Islands have steadily declined in popularity over the past decade due to overpricing, overdevelopment, eco-unfriendly cruise ship tourism, marine wildlife harassment (Stingray City), coral reef degradation and increasing concerns that diving-related fatalities are linked to the failure of dive boat operators to comply with commonly accepted dive safety procedures. Hoping to lure divers back to the Caymans, local tourism promoters announced last October that the government would adopt Florida's scheme to replace dying coral reefs with value-added scuba diving product comprised of scuttled U.S. Navy warships. Promoters said they hope to sink the 77-meter, 2,290 tonne USS Kittiwake later this year. | 
