Diver found dead in Lake Erie identified as underwater explorer

A 70-year-old man found dead last week in Lake Erie has been identified as Dave VanZandt, an underwater explorer who went missing while diving to a recently-discovered shipwreck, authorities and his nonprofit organization said.

VanZandt was the founder, director and chief archaeologist at Cleveland Underwater Explorers, which studies and documents shipwrecks and other sunken artifacts in the Great Lakes. Its team of researchers, archaeologists and divers focus particularly on Lake Erie, with the organization based in the area around that lake's southern shore, according to its website. 

Although VanZandt's employee biography lists him as "semi-retired" from his roles at Cleveland Underwater Explorers, he still participated in some of their projects and on Saturday had embarked on his first trip of the year, the organization wrote in a Facebook post announcing his death. While "diving on a newly found shipwreck," Cleveland Underwater Explorers said that VanZandt "failed to return to the boat and suffered a fatal diving accident." Neither the organization nor the authorities that recovered his body shared details about what exactly happened to him during the dive.