A former Florida boating safety task force member was charged with attempted second-degree murder after he allegedly turned off the air supply of a submerged teenage lobster diver, authorities said.
Michael Joseph Simpson, Jr., 51, of Miami Beach, was arrested this week after being accused of initiating a confrontation July 29 over a lobster diving location he allegedly claimed was his spot, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office arrest affidavit.
The captain of a lobster diving boat, Steven Del Sol, told officials that his vessel was anchored off Fisher Island when Simpson’s Conch-brand boat allegedly approached him at high speed and began circling his boat, the arrest affidavit said.
A teenage diver from Del Sol’s boat was already underwater hunting for spiny lobsters, according to the arrest affidavit. The teen was using an apparatus called a third lung, which floats on the water’s surface and pumps air to divers through a breathing hose, the affidavit said…