Japanese tourist dies snorkeling in Australia

As a former scuba diver I find it hard to fathom encountering difficulties while snorkeling. At least short of serious complications like a heart or brain seizure or something similarly sudden. However I've seen crowds of snorkeling tourists and have to agree that there are alot of people snorkeling who don't have enough experience in open water. A simple around the neck vest with CO2 should be worn during snorkeling. These snorkelers don't free dive anyway.

Green Island sucks. It's just had too many tourists and all the coral is dead. Just so you never go there.

JPYuki: "Was he wearing a life vest?"

Er, they found him lying on the sea bed. What kind of life vest would sink you, and then keep you down?

Was he wearing a life vest? There are some snorkelers who don't think they need to wear one because they get over confident in their ability to swim. I hope readers learn from this sad incident -- wear a life vest!

The waters around Green Island are calm and protected. This guy probably had a heart attack. I've pulled quite a few Japanese tourists out of the surf on the Gold Coast over the years. They just don't know anything about the dangers of surf. The tour operators and hotels should provide basic surf safety guidelines for tourists in these areas. Like, only swim between the red and yellow flags, never swim at night and don't go past waist deep. Three surf tips would save a dozen tourist's lives every summer on the Gold Coast.

There isn't good swimming education over here.

The Pro lives in Japan I believe, thus the 'here'

Every now and then you get stories of Japanese people drowning in Australia. There isn't good swimming education over here.

Wrong! You are wrong! There is very good swimming education in Australia. A very high percentage of Australians are able to swim, even young children. Japanese tourists on the otherhand, are not well known for their swimming ability. Hence, many Japanese tourists drown in Australian waters.

It is a tragedy that this person has died. The facts are this person was not competent in the water and should not have been there in the first place.

Why is it sad to die on vacation, in the middle of a hopefully relaxing and enjoyable holiday? I think it would be much sadder to die when you're feeling miserable and stressed at work.

Every now and then you get stories of Japanese people drowning in Australia. There isn't good swimming education over here.

Sadm rest in peace.

That's so sad!! Dying while you are on vacation is something terrible. I hope they will find out what went wrong.