6:46pm Monday 6th July 2009
A SCALLOP diver was found safe and well after disappearing for three hours in the Lulworth area yesterday afternoon.
The 41-year-old Purbeck man set out on the shellfish-gathering trip with a female colleague at 10.40am.
The woman was collecting the scallops in bags marked by sur¬ face buoys.
She came to the last marker expecting to find the diver on the end of it, but he was missing having been due to surface at 12.15pm.
He was eventually found by a boat in the area three hours later.
Mark Rodaway, Portland Coastguard rescue co-ordination centre manager, said the diver had been kept warm by his dry suit.
He said: "He was difficult to locate because he was not carry¬ ing a surface detection aid.
However the fact that he was wearing a dry suit increased his survivability."
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