The Yucatan Stonewalls its Diving Deaths

In March, two Americans were diving from the boat Squalo Adventures, off Isla Mujeres, near Cancun, when Scuba Cancun's boat, Mr. Tom, plowed over the buoy marking a sunken minesweeper dive site and killed Evan Abramson, a faculty member at the University of Washington, and his friend Tom Schaefer, a staff member.

We reported on the incident, but at the time of our publication, the authorities had yet to release the victims' names, and it's proved difficult to get further information.

But we do know that the C55 boat wreck is marked with a permanent dive buoy. On March 4, a loaded dive boat from Scuba Cancun ignored protocol around dive sites and drove at a good speed too close to the Squalo Adventures and right over the buoy, killing Tom and Evan, who were beginning to surface. One can only speculate about the relationship between the captain of Mr. Tom and Squalo Adventures. Was that in play? Or was this sheer negligence? Perhaps we'll never know.

You see, Scuba Cancun has been in business for more than 40 years and is well connected, so, as things often go in Mexico, we may hear no more of the story. Both Scuba Cancun and Squalo Dive Center are Five Star PADI operations. Neither they nor several other operations in the area have answered our emails seeking more information (even when we wrote in Spanish). We could find no follow-up information from any news source, and Scuba Cancun is still taking tourists diving. One wonders whether PADI will have anything to say about this.

Historically, no one in the Yucatan has wanted to talk about dive deaths. In April 2017, when we were working on a story about the diving death of American Tammy R. Schmitz at Palancar Reef in Cozumel, some people in the Cozumel diving business tried to warn us off of our reporting it. And there have been other incidents of operations stonewalling us.

So, while everyone remains mum about scuba deaths, we should note that the once-comfortable Yucatan, according to reports from the Riviera Maya online news service, is rife with crime that often involves locals in drug deals, and tourists must be on guard.

On June 11, armed assailants arrived at the Isla Mujeres on jet skis and assaulted and robbed people enjoying the beach. At least one shot was fired, grazing a beachgoer. Two Canadians were murdered in their Playa Carmen condo on June 21. Even quiet Cozumel had a murder at the end of June; when a man was shot and killed on a Cozumel street, the second attempt on his life in the same week.

Take care when visiting the Mayan Riviera. There is little you can do if confronted by an armed thug.