FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A scuba diver made an unusual find under the sea off the coast of Fort Lauderdale: a possible torpedo or explosive device.
Local diver Kevin Noppinger said the underwater discovery makes for a strange kind of throwback.
“That dive, we saw some dolphins and eels and things like that, really nice turtles,” he said, “but yeah, to see something like what we think is a torpedo was really interesting to see that.”
Noppinger was out diving a couple of years ago and found the suspicious object on the ocean floor but never marked it. Days before Memorial Day weekend, he found it again.
Noppinger believes it’s a sign.
“Maybe it’s fate. Memorial Day, and all of a sudden, we found that torpedo again,” he said.
Noppinger said he found the object half a mile off shore of the northern section of Fort Lauderdale Beach.
While he isn’t sure it’s a torpedo, the diver said, it certainly looks like one.
“It had a nose to it. It also, on the back, it had what I believe is called a cowling where you would normally have props,” said Noppinger.
Noppinger said he has notified the U.S. Coast Guard of his find and, while he plans to go back to take a look, he will certainly keep his distance.
“We just looked at it underwater and went like, ‘This, like, it could blow up,’ and we didn’t touch it. We swam by,” he said.
Noppinger has lived in Fort Lauderdale for 30 years. He said this possible torpedo is the most bizarre thing he’s ever found while diving.
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