The diving death of John James Lindsay that occurred on 7 Nov last year near Gannett Island , off the coast south west of Raglan, has been declared an accident by coroner Gordon Matenga. Mr Lindsay’s body was found on Ruapuke beach almost a month later, on 2Dec. At the inquest, the coroner said, “This is an accident and no-one is to blame – I don’t think you should blame anyone.”
The coroner was told the eight men, including Jim Lindsay who was the skipper of the boat, had gone out that day to catch crayfish for their friend’s upcoming wedding. Anchoring off Gannett Island Mr Lindsay and two other men went down for the first dive. Mr Lindsay borrowed Mr Barker’s regulator, which had a depth gauge, because his had fallen out.
After about 15 minutes the men heard Mr Lindsay come to the surface and gasp or yell for help. He was between 20 and 70 metres away and looked very distressed with a face that was bright red.
The men cut the anchor rope and tried to get to him, but fouled both props and the boat stopped. Mr Lindsay surfaced briefly again, then disappeared. He was not wearing his dive mask when he surfaced, his buoyancy jacket had not inflated, and it looked like he was still wearing his weight belt.