Tragic Discovery: Body of Missing Diver Found in São Miguel's Seven Cities Lagoon

The body of a 57-year-old man, who had been missing since Thursday in the waters of the Seven Cities Lagoon on São Miguel Island in the Azores, was found this Saturday, according to a fire brigade source.

Nuno Barbosa, the commander of the Ponta Delgada Volunteer Firefighters, told Lusa news agency that the body was located at 15:21 local time (one hour more in Lisbon) by a diver and was removed from the water by 16:10 local time.

The body was later transported to the morgue of the Ponta Delgada hospital for an autopsy. Barbosa reported that the corpse was submerged "on top of a 'pillow' of marine algae."

The man was reported missing at 15:40 local time (one hour more in Lisbon) on Thursday after diving into the Seven Cities Lagoon, where he was with a group of friends.

Search efforts, conducted between Thursday and today, involved teams of divers, drones for shoreline surveillance, rescue motorcycles, a boat with a sonar to "scan the bottom" of the lagoon, and a submersible drone from the University of the Azores (usually used for scientific research at sea).

Today, 12 operational personnel and divers from the volunteer fire brigades of Ponta Delgada, Ribeira Grande, and Vila Franca do Campo, as well as PSP elements, were on site.

On Thursday, Fernando Infante, deputy commander of the Ponta Delgada Volunteer Firefighters, told Lusa that the man, a resident of São Miguel Island, was at the site with a group of friends and disappeared while sailing in a commonly designated "seagull" boat and decided to dive.

Users of the recreational boats available at the site "must wear a life jacket, which is mandatory," but, "apparently, the man removed it to dive," he said. According to the Seven Cities Lagoon Hydrographic Basin Management Plan, "the bathing recreation area – beach, properly delimited and signaled, should be the only location where swimming and bathing are allowed."