Diver Snared by Lines on Trap Dies

A 15-year-old Malibu scuba diver died despite doctors’ efforts to save him Friday night after he became snagged in underwater lines and ran out of air while apparently trying to free lobsters from a trap off the Channel Islands.

Robert McLaughlin was reportedly near death when he was flown by a Navy helicopter to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks after the diving accident Thursday. A hospital spokeswoman said he died at 6:45 p.m.

According to the Coast Guard, McLaughlin and a diving partner, Sara Graves, 18, were diving in 60 feet of water in Fry’s Harbor off Santa Cruz Island when he became entangled in the lobster lines and ran out of air.

After trying to keep McLaughlin alive by sharing her own dwindling oxygen supply, Graves rose quickly to the surface to summon help from the crew of a Santa Barbara diving and pleasure boat, the Vision, that they had helped charter.

Glen Fritzler, one of the boat owners, said McLaughlin and Graves belonged to a 29-member group called Malibu Divers, which is connected with a scuba shop in Malibu.

“They were both apparently low on air, and he was attempting to release some lobsters when he got trapped,” said Fritzler from his office in Santa Barbara after talking to members of the crew by telephone.

“She attempted to ‘buddy-breathe’ him,” he said, sharing the mouthpiece to her oxygen tank. “When she ran out of air, she made an emergency ascent.”

After Graves reached the surface, one of the officers of the vessel, Bill Brigham, dived into the water, freed McLaughlin and brought him up, Fritzler said.

Coast Guard officials said McLaughlin’s pulse, heartbeat and other vital signs were undetectable when he was rushed to the hospital.

Graves suffered nausea and showed some signs of the bends--a blood disorder that afflicts divers who rise too rapidly from the ocean. She was treated at the hospital Thursday and released.