A Juneau man is dead after a diving accident Monday morning in Funter Bay on the west side of Admiralty Island.
Alaska State Troopers say 35-year-old John Robert Pugh, Jr. didn’t come up from his second dive of the day, sometime before 8 o’ clock Monday morning. An unidentified companion went in after him, administered CPR, and brought Pugh to the Auke Bay boat launch aboard a 21-foot skiff.
Pugh is the son of University of Alaska Southeast Chancellor John Pugh and former Alaska Corrections Commissioner Margaret Pugh. State business records list him as holder of a business license for the Scuba Tank dive shop on Dunn Street and a part owner of the company Johnny’s Oysters for which the business license expired in 2007.
Pugh was reportedly diving in about 20- to 25-feet of water when the accident occurred. He was reportedly found near the bottom with the regulator out of his mouth.
Sergent Tim Birt says troopers have requested an autopsy by the state Medical Examiner’s office in Anchorage, because the death happened in a remote area and was unobserved. An investigation is underway, but the death is not considered suspicious.
Birt says the commercial sea cucumber dive fishery was getting underway in the area Monday, but he says Pugh’s dive was considered recreational in nature.
