Two snorkelers die in the Florida Keys, and cops say a boat possibly involved with one

The body of a 27-year-old man from Port Orange, Florida, was pulled from the water in the Lower Keys, and state wildlife police have initially called it a “fatal boating accident.”

The man had been snorkeling off Key Haven but when he didn’t surface Monday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was called in. An FWC officer was checking two vessels in the area when he was told a snorkeler had disappeared.

Officers started searching by air and on the water, and brought in aircraft from the U.S. Coast Guard to help.

Several hours later, the man’s body was recovered.

“Preliminary information indicates head trauma from a possible vessel strike,” FWC spokesman Jason Rafter said in a statement. “This is an active and ongoing boating accident investigation.

READ MORE: The Florida Keys may feel like paradise — but they can be deadly. What’s killing people?

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article262075527.html#storylink=cpy

Meanwhile, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of another snorkeler on Tuesday.

A 53-year-old man from Englewood, Florida, died during a snorkel trip in the Lower Keys.

Kale Dailey was snorkeling in Sawyer Channel at 11:24 a.m. The sheriff’s office said he was feeling ill in the water and wanted to return to a private vessel. When his condition worsened, others helped him to the boat and called 911.

FWC officers brought Dailey ashore to Blimp Road on Cudjoe Key where he died, according to the Monroe Sheriff’s Office.

The deaths come on the eve of Florida’s annual two-day lobster miniseason, an event that draws thousands of people to the Keys and other coastal spots in the state to take their legal limit of Florida spiny lobster.