Tributes have been paid to a Wick man who died while diving off the Caithness coast.
Relatives and friends were left shocked after 67-year-old Robert Craigie was found unconscious in the sea earlier this week.
A post-mortem examination is being carried out to help establish what went wrong when the part-time taxi driver went scuba diving off the east coast of Caithness on Tuesday morning.
A passing boat sounded the alert after Mr Craigie was reported unconscious in the water off Clyth.
The crew of Wick Lifeboat called to the scene found the diver and took him on board.
After being taken back to Wick harbour, he was seen by paramedics who were unable to save him.
Mr Craigie lived by himself in Macrae Street. A divorcee, he is survived by a daughter Lynn, of Huddart Street, Wick.
Caithness civic leader Willie Mackay said: “This is very sad news. We don’t know exactly what happened but he was a very experienced diver and I’m sure he would have been very careful in everything he did.
“With the massive TV coverage we’ve had of the young boys rescued in Thailand, I think the whole world now has great respect for the job divers do. It’s tragic that we’ve seen on our own doorstep what can happen if things go wrong.”
Mr Craigie, who was a butcher to trade, worked for Wick-based Johnnie’s Taxis.
Owner Johnnie Roberton said: “It’s tragic whatever happened to him. We got quite a shock when we heard – it knocked me for six.
“He was very keen on diving but I didn’t think he had been doing so much of it recently.
“He was a very friendly chap – all the customers liked him. He got on with everybody.”
David Steele, chairman of Caithness Diving Club, said Mr Craigie had been a member of the club in the past.
Mr Steele said fatalities among recreational divers off Caithness have been very rare, with the last he could recall being off Scrabster in the 1960s.
He said: “It’s obviously very sad whatever happened to him, whether it was a medical issue or equipment failure or something else – until the post-mortem is carried out, there’s no way of knowing.”
Police yesterday said investigations into the death were ongoing, but it was not being treated as suspicious.
