EXPERIENCED divers Peter Timm (51) and Adele Stegen (45), who died in yesterday’s tragic diving accident in Umkomaas, were on a mission to recover a camera which fell from a survey ship last week.
There has been much speculation among the diving fraternity as to what could have caused the tragedy, but it is believed they had been diving at a depth of 58 metres at Umkomaas beach.
According to a friend, the pair were diving close to the wreck when Peter apparently saw Adele ‘swelling up’, so he took her to the surface and started giving her mouth to mouth resuscitation. He then collapsed and they both died on the boat.
It’s reported that Peter was one of three divers hired by Ezemvelo Wildlife and the SA Association for Marine Biological Research to recover a piece of equipment that had fallen off a research vessel near the Aliwal Shoal. He was diving with technical diver Adele and another, unidentified, diver at the time.
Police, search and rescue personnel and paramedics attended the scene and an eThekwini municipality lifeguard bakkie had to be used to retrieve the bodies from the beach as the morgue van could not drive on the sand.
Peter was the co-owner of Triton Dive Charters and Lodge in Sodwana and was well known for his discovery of the coelacanths in Sodwana Bay in 2000. He is also an award-winning underwater photographer and a pilot.
Adele, from Vryheid, and Peter were members of the exclusive Alternative Dive Group, which brought together divers from across the country and explored alternative diving spots.
According to the www.tritondiving.co.za website, in March this year, Peter had dived up to 110 metres in Jesser Canyon, Sodwana Bay, the only place in the world where you can dive to see a living coelacanth – a species that has remained unchanged for 400-million years.
Just a handful of divers have had the privilege of diving at Jesser Canyon and a few have been lucky enough to be rewarded with coelacanth sightings, thanks to Peter’s help.
