Film Makers Body Found 300 ft Underwater In Mallorca

Police searching for the body of a professional diver regarded as one of Spain’s top underwater documentary filmmakers who drowned on a dive have found his body 300 feet underwater.

Fernando Garfella Palmer, 31, went missing after diving six miles from the shore of the island of Sa Dragonera located off western Mallorca, one of the Spanish Balearic Islands, on Sunday.

His body has now been recovered by members of the Spanish Civil Guard’s Special Group for Underwater Activities (GEAS) at a depth of 92 metres (302 feet).

The recovery was made on Tuesday after the GEAS joined the operation to find the body the day before, when a dive to 70 metres (230 feet) was fruitless.

The body was taken to the port of Puerto Soller and the Civil Guard are investigating the cause of death.

It was reported that Garfella Palmer had been trapped, but it was not revealed how, and when he failed to surface his girlfriend called another unnamed diver, a friend of Garfella Palmer, who went to his rescue.

The rescuer left it until the last minute when his own tanks were almost empty to save himself, and then had to rush to the surface where he suffered an accident due to bad decompression. He also almost died and had to be transferred to the city of Palma de Mallorca in a helicopter, as can be seen in the video, and placed in a hyperbaric chamber, according to the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

The friend remains in the Juaneda Clinic and his prognosis is reportedly reserved.

Garfella Palmer had reportedly been diving for more than 10 years and had explored the Sa Dragonera waters hundreds of times.

He was known for his love of nature, to which he devoted almost his entire life. He protected and documented the Andratx coasts in western Majorca and also documented the rescues of migrants in North Africa and volunteered on a vessel operated by NGO Open Arms.

Oscar Camps, the founder of the NGO, wrote on Twitter: “We lost a big one, and it hurts us a lot. Fer Garfella, a companion on missions in the sea from which he rescued so many lives and which yesterday claimed his. A friend, an admired professional, he leaves us too soon, but he will always be with us. The Echo 2 rescue boat will bear his name”.

Former director of Greenpeace Spain, Xavier Pasto wrote on Twitter: “Rest in Peace, Fer. Without you and your work, the marine conservation that we all enjoy, in Sa Dragonera and many other places, would have been much more difficult. Thank you for all you have done”.