At least one beach is without lifeguards this summer because of staffing shortages according to the Ministry of Environment, Telecommunications and E-Commerce.

And The Royal Gazette understands this is due to the Ministry of Labour and Immigration failing to approve applications from children of Bermudian residents.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Immigration Robert Horton had not replied to a request for comment at the time of going to press yesterday. At least one long-term resident — the father of a lifeguard — alleges that incompetence at the Immigration Department has forced his non-Bermudian daughter, who worked for the Department of Parks last year, to sit idle this summer.

“My daughter applied for permission sometime in March or April this year. I called immigration this morning and an official there said they had only received the application on July 11 and would be processing them with all of the other applicants,” he said. “If they are going to be processed with the other permits, then by the time they come through the kids will already be back in school.

“It is already a month into the summer and I had warned somebody at Parks it will take something serious to address this issue.”

The confirmation of staffing shortages comes after an American tourist died at John Smith’s Bay last Wednesday, July 11.

David Longenette, 48, was pronounced dead on Wednesday at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital after an Emergency Services team responded to the call that a man was lying unresponsive on the beach at roughly 2.25 that afternoon.

Visitors Scott and Jayce Nicholls told The Royal Gazette>that while the Emergency Services response to the incident had been very quick, lifeguards had not responded as quickly and had not seemed to know how to use a defibrillator.

Both the the account of the Nicholls family and an email from a second eyewitness sent to The Royal Gazett$>on Friday, reported that the lifeguards were negligent.

A spokesperson for the Ministry denied these allegations, saying what the tourists saw were standard actions by trained lifeguards and confirmed that the Lifeguard Superintendent, Dean Bottomely, who is a trained investigator interviewed both lifeguards, the victim’s family members and the attending nurse. All of their accounts were the same.

However, a Ministry spokesperson did acknowledge that 20 lifeguards are necessary for coverage of the usual beaches, but only 13 lifeguards were employed this summer. “It is anticipated that we need approximately 20 lifeguards per season. At present we have 13 full time lifeguards. Currently, Turtle Beach is the only beach that normally has Lifeguard service that does not at this time,” according to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment, Telecommunications and E-Commerce.

“The policy of the Ministry of the Environment, Telecommunications and E-Commerce, is to hire as many Bermudians as possible, however, without sufficient applications, we accept applications from non -Bermudian residents, and work closely with the Department of Immigration to ensure that we carry out the proper process.” In an effort to recruit more lifeguards, the Ministry had placed an ad in the Bermuda Sun’s Friday edition and in The Royal Gazette yesterday.

The ad says it is looking for ‘Dynamic Individuals” to be lifeguards during the summer session, which runs until October 2007 and the next training session was expected to start yesterday.

According to the Ministry spokesperson: “This course is approximately 56 hours for new lifeguards. It involves class room modules, as well as practical training on the beach and in the water.

“They are trained and certified in First Aid, CPR, Oxygen administration, AED usage, surf rescues with various equipment including rescue boards, rescue cans and rescue tubes. They are also taught underwater recovery from shallow water.”