Those who died of breath-holding hypoxia were all young, Australian and male. Adverse environmental conditions were implicated in 14 deaths.
Introduction There are very few demographic data available on snorkelling deaths in Australia.
Further, existing data and literature on snorkelling deaths are not readily available in the general medical literature. One study, by Walker, described 90 snorkelling deaths in Australia between 1972 and 1987. We thus examined subsequent Australian snorkelling deaths that occurred from 1987 to 1996, inclusive. We then applied our current knowledge of diving physiology and medicine 8 to descriptions given by observers and the autopsy results to determine a cause of death in each case. We identified 60 snorkelling deaths in Australia during the study period.