Authorities call off search for missing US diver off Bimini
Bahamian and U.S. Coast Guard authorities suspended their search for a missing American freediver Sunday afternoon, two days after he went missing during a dive near Bimini, the Coast Guard announced.
The diver, 31-year-old Ryan Proulx of Connecticut, had sailed to the Bahamas on a boat from Palm Beach County last week. He was reported missing Friday after diving near the Bimini Barge Wreck, located 1.5 miles west of Bimini Inlet, according to the Coast Guard, which assisted local authorities in the search.
“We offer our deepest condolences to the Proulx family,” Coast Guard Liaison Officer Lt. Cmdr. Matt Spado said in a statement posted on Twitter. The decision to suspend a search is one the Guard never takes lightly, he said.
An experienced diver and fishing charter captain, Proulx was last seen wearing a green top, athletic shorts, red dive fins and a green snorkel, according to postings by the Coast Guard and Proulx’s friends.
It was unclear Sunday where in Palm Beach County Proulx and his party of nine sailed from.
The search was led by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force with help from the U.S. Coast Guard, which sent two helicopters and one HC-144 turboprop plane, said Petty Officer Eric Rodriguez, a Coast Guard public affairs specialist in Miami.
“At this point we need a #miracle,” wrote Proulx’s sister Nicole Proulx in a Twitter post Saturday.
The Bimini Barge Wreck is considered to be a deep-diving location at the edge of a steep drop-off. The diving school organization Scuba Schools International recommends advanced certification for the dive, which is “prone to current and depths” starting at 76 feet.
Proulx owns a fishing charter business in Rhode Island.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Authorities call off search for Conn. freediver missing off Bimini
