A school of snapper swim on Molasses Reef in Key Largo in November 2017.
Don Rhodes
Miami Herald FILE
A man from India died in the hospital after he was found in distress in the ocean while scuba diving a Florida Keys reef Wednesday morning, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.
Abhinav Lamba, 43, was swimming on Molasses Reef around 11 a.m. when the crew of a commercial dive boat noticed him in distress before going beneath the water’s surface, said Adam Linhardt, the sheriff’s office spokesman.
The dive boat crew brought Lamba to their vessel and immediately began CPR and took him to paramedics on shore, Linhardt said.
Paramedics transported him to Mariners Hospital in Tavernier, also in the Upper Keys, where he died, Linhardt said.
Autopsy results are pending, but detectives do not suspect foul play, Linhardt said.
Molasses Reef is located within a federal marine sanctuary off Key Largo. Because it is a protected area, fishing is not permitted, and it is teeming with sea life, making it a popular site for scuba diving and snorkeling.
Miami Herald
David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.Â