Keys snorkel, dive deaths now up to six for 2011

Kevin Wadlow - 

A Canadian man, 69, died after a snorkeling trip off Key Largo on Tuesday. The death of John Hobus raised to six the number of scuba or snorkeling deaths in Keys waters so far in 2011. A week before Hobus died, a 42-year-old British visitor died after snorkeling off a Key West beach.

Monroe County Medical Examiner E. Hunt Scheuerman said the cause of the two most recent deaths will be listed after results from additional tests are received. "It's always better to wait to have everything put together," he said Friday.

Hobus, of Whitehorse in Yukon, Canada, was on a snorkel trip at Cannon Patch Reef with the Reef Roamer catamaran from Key Largo, reported the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

"Hobus began to have trouble as he was swimming back to the boat," said agency spokeswoman Becky Herrin. Hobus was pulled aboard and boat crew performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation while returning to shore to Port Largo. Hobus did not survive.

His wife told a detective that Hobus underwent triple-bypass heart surgery in 1995 and was still on several medications.

Simone Newman, 42, of England apparently fell unconscious and died May 24 while snorkeling off Dog Beach in Key West. Efforts by bystanders and first-responders to revive him failed. Key West Police Officer Gary Celcer reported that he "did not see any gross visible signs of trauma" on Newman.

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