Scuba diver dies while exploring popular shipwreck, a third tragedy in the Florida Keys

A man died Wednesday while scuba diving at a popular shipwreck site, the third tragedy this month in Florida Keys waters.

The tragedy happened two days after the U.S. Coast Guard called off a search for a diving instructor who disappeared last week while diving a shipwreck, the U.S.S. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, farther south off Key West.

Also last week, a 13-year-old boy died while freediving and spearfishing about eight miles off the Middle Keys island of Duck Key.

The man who died Wednesday, who the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office has not named, was diving on the Spiegel Grove, a 510-feet long Cold War-era U.S. Navy troop and equipment transport ship, intentionally sunk about six miles off Key Largo in 2002 to serve as an artificial reef and scuba attraction. The Vandenberg was sunk in 2009 for the same purpose.

Adam Linhardt, Keys sheriff’s office spokesman, said other divers on the commercial dive boat from which the man dove, found the diver within the ship. They brought him back to the dive boat around 1 p.m., according to the sheriff’s office.

It was not immediately clear if the man died at sea or if he was taken to a hospital and then died.

Detectives are investigating, an autopsy is pending and family has not yet been notified, Linhardt said Wednesday afternoon.

This report will be updated as more information becomes available.