NEAH BAY — A 24-year-old Tacoma man has died in a free-diving accident near Neah Bay.
The diver, who died Sunday in waters just outside of Neah Bay’s harbor, was identified Monday as Marcus Eldred, said Brian King, chief criminal deputy for the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.
The Sheriff’s Office is investigating Eldred’s death, King said.
Using kayaks as a diving base, Eldred and two friends were snorkeling and free-dive spear fishing about 100 yards from shore in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, just west of the Neah Bay Harbor jetty, he said.
At about 4:30 p.m. , Eldred failed to surface from a dive. Another diver used a radio to call for help from the Neah Bay Coast Guard Station.
The Coast Guard began a search for the missing man with rescue boats and a helicopter from the Coast Guard Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles as his fellow divers searched under water.
One of the divers found Eldred entangled in a kelp bed 20 to 25 feet underwater and cut him free.
Eldred was brought to the surface but was not responsive, King said.
A Coast Guard helicopter involved in the search was waved down, and a Coast Guard rescue boat took Eldred to shore in Neah Bay, where he was later pronounced deceased at the Neah Bay Health Clinic.
“He never regained a pulse,” King said.
A coroner’s hold was placed Eldred’s body, pending a cause of death determination by the Clallam County Prosecutor’s Office, which handles coroner’s functions.
King said free diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on divers’ ability to hold their breath until resurfacing rather than the use of a breathing apparatus, such as scuba gear.
