The Coast Guard received a call at 10:17 a.m. Friday from a crew member aboard the dive boat Bubble Trouble, reporting that Papageorge had surfaced unconscious. Officials said he was performing his first dive and hadn't reached the ocean floor when he resurfaced.
A helicopter crew hoisted Papageorge from aboard a pleasure boat and took him to Cape May County Airport in Wildwood, where an ambulance took him to a hospital. He was pronounced dead a short time later.
The Coast Guard is investigating the incident.
