Police are to launch an internal investigation into whether on-duty marine Police were properly qualified in resuscitation techniques after a tourist died on Thursday afternoon.

Barbara Massover, 53, was snorkelling off the Sundeck catamaran with her family at Mangrove Bay when she became unresponsive at about 3.20 p.m.

Two crew from the vessel tried to save her life by performing CPR and last night the owner of the Sundeck claimed that the Marine Police who attended the incident were not all up to date in their qualifications.

Police spokesman Dwayne Caines responded last night by saying: "Based on the information given by The Royal Gazette, the Bermuda Police Service has commenced an internal inquiry into the matter. At the appropriate time a formal response will be made by the service."

Beez Evans, General Manager of Charter Bermuda Limited and owner of the Sundeck, said his crew continued with CPR a 19-year-old female employee was doing the breathing, while captain Choy Aming, administered chest compressions. Despite their efforts Mrs. Massover was pronounced dead at 4.24 p.m. by an on call physician.

Mr. Evans said: "One police officer claimed that he wasn't trained, another claimed that his training had expired and I don't know what the other police officer's situation was, because he would have been driving the boat."

According to his account of what transpired that day, the Sundeck left Dockyard at 2 p.m. with 32 passengers on board. They arrived at Mangrove Bay around 2.30 p.m. and gave passengers a snorkelling introduction and safety briefings.

"They had their gear and went snorkelling on a very shallow sandbar. Apparently the whole incident transpired in four feet of water."

"The woman was unconscious but still breathing when she made it to the boat, but had very shallow breathing. From what we could tell there was no fluid in her lungs. She was vomiting, but that's apparently common with CPR, especially when you are pushing down on the sternum and that area because the stomach likes to kick in too.

"None of us are professionals in the medical field, but Choy felt there wasn't fluid in her lungs so that had to point to something else. Her lips were blue, but there was nothing obstructing her throat, because the crew did the finger sweeps, so they did the care as best they could."

He said: "Why Marine Police didn't agree in taking it over I don't know, but if the captain of our boat said he wanted to continue treatment then I can understand why they would have allowed that to happen.

"More hands help than less. If you have three persons in a Police marine vehicle one person has to drive that boat, one person has to tie that boat up, and the kind of CPR we were doing requires two people."

Mr. Evans said Mr. Aming and the female crew member accompanied the victim onto the Police boat and continued CPR, while Police rushed to Watford Bridge.

"If you have done this before, which Choy has, and you are presented with the option to either stay with the boat which is perfectly safe, or go along with this small Police boat and possibly make the difference between this woman living or dying. You are going to do what makes the most sense."

He continued: "In my opinion my crew did everything they could, and I wanted to make sure that if the Marine Police were being criticised that they were being criticised properly, if they did something wrong they should be penalised for it or at least it should be mentioned, but I wanted to make sure that our story was right."

"In my understanding all marine Police are trained in CPR, it's quite possible that some of their training had expired but in order to even serve on that boat you have to have a certain amount of training and first aid and CPR are the first courses they take," he added.