An international tourist has died after being found unconscious in the water during a dive on the Great Barrier Reef.
The man, aged in his 60s, was located at Ribbon Reef off Cooktown in Far North Queensland last Friday and was brought onto the boat unresponsive.
The boat returned to shore at Cooktown, where a paramedic was brought on board to treat the man, but he could not be revived.
Queensland Police are treating the man’s death as non-suspicious and will prepare a report for the coroner..
The Department of Health and Safety at Work is also investigating.
The tourist is understood to have been on a multi-day LiveAboard diving trip from Cairns when the tragedy occurred. Courier mail reported.
The man is the third tourist to die on the Great Barrier Reef in the past 12 months.
A 60-year-old international tourist was found unconscious during a diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef (file image)
A Dutch tourist died after collapsing while snorkelling at the reef in May.
The 51-year-old woman had just returned to the boat from the water at Norman Reef when she lost consciousness.
Paramedics, who arrived at the scene in a Rescue 510 helicopter, attempted to revive her, but she died at the scene.
Adrian Meyer, from Angaston in South Australia, died after he and a group of divers were swept over the reef by a strong current last November.
He was with Nicholas Meyer and his daughter Angela Henson about 60 kilometres off the coast northeast of Cairns when disaster struck.
The international was on a diving expedition when the tragedy occurred (file image)
During the struggle against the current, Mr Meyer, 71, is believed to have suffered a medical episode and was loaded onto a rescue boat which sank a short time later.
A nearby boat, which one witness described as looking like a “duck boat,” stepped in to pull an unconscious Mr. Meyer out of the water and onto the main boat.
