Local News
| News | Sports | Business | Opinions | Columns | Entertainment |
| Science/Technology | Weather | Archives | E-mail Us |

Monday, July 10, 2000

Portland man, 36, drowns during spear fishing trip

Diver may have suffered shallow water blackout, expert says

By Michael Hines
Caller-Times

A Portland man drowned Sunday while spear fishing alone in the Gulf of Mexico about 20 miles off the coast of Port Aransas.
   Paul A. Steiner, 36, was found dead after his wife, Sherrell, called for help when he didn't resurface an hour after entering the water.
   Paul Steiner had been free diving, in which swimmers do not use snorkels to breathe. Members of the San Antonio-based Dive World Scuba Center found him.
   Rod Wadle, the dive group's secretary, helped bring his body to the surface. Wadle said Steiner was lying on his back about 120 feet below the surface. His 5-foot long spear gun was found nearby.
   Wadle said it looked as though Steiner had suffered a shallow water blackout, in which swimmers lose consciousness within 15 feet of the water's surface because their lungs are starved for oxygen. Wadle, who has helped Bexar County Sheriff's officials in about seven similar cases, said this sort of condition can be prevented.
   "A dive buddy would definitely have helped," he said. "There's a possibility that this life could have been saved."
   According to Diving Medicine Online, shallow water blackout induces unconsciousness when expanding lungs suck oxygen from divers' blood. The blackout occurs quickly and without warning.
   Jack Kenworthey, captain of the Tropic Star, said the group had been diving since 9 a.m. at the Moxy Rigs about 25 miles northeast of the Port Aransas jetties. The group was returning to shore when the Coast Guard began broadcasting for vessels to help Steiner.
   When she did not see him resurface, Sherrell Steiner contacted the Riptide, a commercial crew boat that acted as a relay between her and Coast Guard officials.
   Kenworthey said it appeared as though Paul Steiner had fired the gun but missed his intended target. There were no signs that Steiner had been dragged by a fish, Kenworthey said, or that he had gotten caught in fishing nets or other obstacles. Kenworthey said it looked as though Steiner had dropped his spear gun and tried to retrieve it.
   "He was lying free of everything at the bottom," Kenworthey said. "He just tried too hard to get his spear gun back."
   Kenworthey said when the San Antonio group arrived, Sherrell Steiner told members of the group that her husband had resurfaced once before going back into the depths.
   "That's just the worst thing you could do," Kenworthey said. "You're deprived of oxygen. When you don't have a diving buddy, you don't have anybody to save you."
  
  

---

Staff writer Michael Hines can be reached at 886-3758 or by e-mail at hinesm@caller.com

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |

---

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

---

  © 2000, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.