The pair, reported to be a 45-year-old male diving instructor and a 43-year-old female trainee on a diving introduction course, both from Poland, had finned into shallow water beneath Shark Bay's commercial boats jetty.
Both divers got too close to the underside of a moored vessel and were struck by either one or two turning propellers.
The boat was reported to have been running its engine in neutral, in which case it would have possessed a variable-pitch propeller arrangement in which a driveshaft will continue to turn even when neutral is engaged.
The instructor was described as a tourist with no connection to dive centres in the area.
Last year Shark Bay Dive Centre, working with Umbarak, owner of the jetty and some of the adjacent beach, set up a roped-off area to the north of the jetty specifically as a safe area, recognised by boat operators, for divers and swimmers. |
