Scuba diving accident kills Tilden's Scuba Center customer

DUCK KEY, Florida — A man who was scuba diving off the D/V Seafari dive boat with Tilden's Scuba Center died.
John Taylor, 67, of Clearwater, Florida, died just two days after another scuba diving accident killed a diver who was scuba diving with It's A Dive off the Sea Star dive boat.
Police said Taylor was scuba diving with his girlfriend when he signaled that he was low on air and resurfacing.
At the surface he apparently fell unconscious and sank to the sea bottom.
According to initial reports, the Tilden's Scuba Center boat crew did not know one of their divers was in trouble until they did a head count and realized the couple was missing.
At that point they sounded the missing diver alarm and other boats and divers started searching for Taylor and his girlfriend.
Searchers found the woman at the surface about a mile from the dive boat. Divers later found Taylor's body on the sea floor.
On October 30, a similar accident killed Joanne Page, 51, who died while scuba diving with It's A Dive off the Sea Star dive boat.
Cattle boats
Both fatalities involved large 45-ft Corinthian catamaran dive charter vessels -- Tilden's Scuba Center's Seafari and It's A Dive's Sea Star -- that divers often describe as "cattle boats", which carry 20 - 40 divers per 2-tank boat diving trip.

Many divers believe that "cattle boats" compromise diver safety because boat crew cannot safely supervise so many divers in the water at the same time.

There have been 12 diving related fatalities in 2008 making the Florida Keys one of the world's most dangerous places to dive.