“From the shore, there’s less direct supervision. It’s often up to the passenger when they go in and out of the water and how they undertake their activity,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
He said that while boat-based activities such as snorkelling were strictly supervised with mandatory headcounts, shore excursions often relied on passengers following guidance, which increased the risk of accidents.<\/p>\n
The woman had been on a hike on the island as part of a 60-day cruise when she went missing. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
“Older people can have a heart attack or a stroke or walk away from an area, but having the protocols in terms of checklists and buddies certainly should prevent that in future,” he said.<\/p>\n
Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) regulations require operators of commercial passenger vessels to have procedures to monitor passengers, including head counts, so no-one is left behind.<\/p>\n
The regulations also include a “procedure for monitoring passengers so that the master of the vessel is able to find out the number of passengers on board the vessel at any time”.<\/p>\n
Adam Smith says there are gaps in how passengers are monitored. (Supplied: Adam Smith)<\/p>\n
Dr Smith suggested that adopting a “buddy system”, similar to the one used for snorkelling, could improve safety during land-based activities.<\/p>\n
In a statement, an AMSA spokesperson said it was investigating the circumstances surrounding why the passenger may not have been accounted for during boarding.<\/p>\n
“AMSA will make an assessment as to whether there was any non-compliance associated with the passenger not being counted onto the ship and, if necessary, will take action to address them,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the CEO of the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators (AMPTO), Gareth Phillips, said his thoughts were “first and foremost with the family” and everyone affected by the incident.<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761739938_818_6039d9bde8ad38bd53da98f22bc1965f\")
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The woman’s body was found on Lizard island, 320km north of Cairns. (Supplied: Sean Ulm)<\/p>\n
He said there were strict Workplace Health and Safety protocols and Maritime Safety Management Systems in place for marine operators.<\/p>\n
“All marine operators are not only committed but also legally required to have strict passenger-verification procedures in place for both in-water and on-land activities,” Mr Phillips said.<\/p>\n
He said Coral Expeditions was a “long-standing and highly respected business” within the industry, “known for maintaining exceptional safety standards and a strong safety record”.<\/p>\n
“As an industry, we remain committed to working closely with all relevant authorities to ensure the highest possible safety standards are upheld,” Mr Phillips said.<\/p>\n
Investigations ongoing<\/p>\n
The Cairns-based Coral Expeditions runs a fleet of three small ships: the Coral Adventurer, the Coral Geographer, and the Coral Discoverer.<\/p>\n
![\"White](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/f537d77adec098db78ac98acb7b06f8b\")
<\/p>\n
The Coral Adventurer is on a 60-day circumnavigation of Australia. (Supplied: Coral Expeditions\/Facebook)<\/p>\n
At the time of the incident, the Coral Adventurer was on its first stopover of a 60-day circumnavigation of Australia, worth tens of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n
The company’s chief executive, Mark Fifield, said investigations were continuing.<\/p>\n
“We are deeply sorry that this has occurred and are offering our full support to the woman’s family,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The Coral team have been in contact with the woman’s family, and we will continue to offer support to them through this difficult process.”<\/p>\n
AMSA said it intended to board the vessel and conduct inquiries when the ship docks in Darwin next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The death of an 80-year-old woman who was left on a remote tropical island after a cruise stop…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":340724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,48124,68803,74850,63832,167848,167847,167849,50,10638],"class_list":{"0":"post-340723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australian-maritime-safety-authority","10":"tag-coral-expeditions","11":"tag-coroners-court","12":"tag-cruise-ship","13":"tag-cruise-ship-regulations","14":"tag-lizard-island-death","15":"tag-maritime-safety-management-systems","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-search-and-rescue"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115457396585043494","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}