Created: 5/6/2009 6:20:23 AM 
KEY LARGO, FL (AP) -- Authorities are investigating the death of a research diver for NOAA's underwater laboratory off Key Largo. The Monroe County Sheriff's Office says an autopsy would be performed Wednesday on 36-year-old Dewey Smith. He was working Tuesday afternoon with two other divers just outside the National Marine Sanctuary when he was found unconscious on the bottom. Authorities say he was taken back to the facility, but CPR efforts were not successful. Smith worked for the National Undersea Research Program's Aquarius laboratory. He was a scientific diving specialist. The laboratory is three and half miles offshore and 60 feet deep. Scientists live in Aquarius during ten-day missions using saturation diving to study and explore the coastal ocean.
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