Cruise passenger drowns in snorkelling trip
An American cruise passenger has died while snorkeling in Belize, the second such snorkelling death in the last month.
Belize Tourism Police are investigating the incident, with many tourism industry leaders concerned over the number of deaths that have occurred in the water involving elderly tourists.
The victim was named as 67-year-old Janice Mittelstadt from South Dakota who had arrived earlier on a Princess Cruises ship.
She was found unresponsive in the water near Sargeant’s Caye.
“We have been seeing that for some time now we are having a few deaths occurring in the sea, especially with diving and snorkelling. But we have also seen that these persons who are dying are people who are advanced in age. So we have decided to have some kind of discussion to see how best we can curb this situation,” said Gualberto Garcia, commanding officer of the Tourism Police.
Garcia said a post mortem would be carried out to see if Mittelstadt had an existing medical condition which may have been a contributing factor.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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