Missing American diver presumed dead at sea

Recovery efforts continue at sea for an American man missing now for more than a week. News Five has confirmed that on December twentieth, thirty-five year old dive master, Corey Monk, an instructor on the Florida based liveaboard Nekton Pilot, accompanied several divers on a night dive off Long Caye on the Lighthouse Reef Atoll. But while the other divers surfaced at nine that night, Monk never made it back to the boat. Efforts by the crew proved unsuccessful and within the hour, the Belize Coast Guard was notified of Monk’s disappearance. Search and rescue missions turned up nothing and he is presumed dead but we understand efforts by his co-workers are still underway to recover Monk’s body. The missing man is a Virginia native, but had been working as a master diver in Florida for the past seven years. His family has planned a memorial service for January eighteenth, which would have been Monk’s thirty-sixth birthday.