The police in Tonga are urging sea cucumber divers to take extra care after a third diver drowned this week.
Police said they were concerned after a 60-year-old man died on Monday night while diving for sea cucumbers at Koloa, Vava’u.
As Kaniva News reported on Tuesday morning the fisherman went diving with a group of divers. He was rushed to hospital.
The deceased was the third within a week after two sea cucumber divers died in Tongatapu on July 6.
How these divers died was still unknown.
But critics have argued on social media that authorities haven’t done enough after it was clear death while diving for sea cucumbers has been reported from time to time since sea cucumber fishing began in 1980s.
In 2012 a diver died after using a method known as hookah diving while diving for sea cucumbers in Ha’apai.
That deceased was the third fisherman to die in a week.
Hookah diving uses an engine on a boat pumping compressed air to a diver below the surface.
Police said at the time the method was dangerous and illegal.
