How is leaving a diver, many miles from shore not criminal?
There was more detail on THT after I posted the original. These were separate incidents.
If I remember correctly, the diver was going down with his dive buddy when he realized that his BC was still inflated. He stopped to correct it. When he started back down he'd lost contact with his dive buddy but kept going down.
The water was murky so he lost the rope and the wreck. He looked around for a little while and came up. When he came up, he was a ways away from the boat and couldn't get back because of the current. The dive boat captain called for help after he didn't come back up.
The dive boat didn't leave him until the Coast Guard was on the scene - if I remember correctly. The diver was found about 8 hours later (7:30 PM) by another boat that correctly estimated drift rate and location and started searching in that area.