Search Called Off for Missing Diver

The search has been called off for a Texas diver missing off the Bahamas who disappeared during a shark diving venture.

The diver, 63-year-old John E. Petty of Longview, Texas, was last seen on a night dive during an 8-night expedition to Tiger Beach, off the Bahama’s West End.

The captain of the dive boat alerted authorities when Petty didn’t resurface, and Coast Guard officials deployed immediate air-and-sea search operations out of Miami.

Police said a mask and other diving items with what appear to be shark bites were found during their 64-hour search, on the seafloor about one nautical mile from where the incident was called in.

“After the Bahamian Government studied the items recovered in numerous searches, it has been determined that a shark attack was the cause,” Petty’s son-in-law said in a statement.

The dive injury attorneys of Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P., Accident & Injury represent those injured and the families of those who have been killed in recreational and commercial diving accidents.