FORGIVENESS COMES FROM THE HEART

A speeding boat nearly killed Carter Viss. He vowed to work with the driver to make sure it never happens again

- Gary Stephen Ross

BENEATH THE OCEAN’S SURFACE waits for a different world—quiet, full of wonder, shimmering with life. Carter Viss loved that world. It’s why he left Colorado to study marine biology at Palm Beach Atlantic University. It’s why he got a job at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, just up Highway 1 on Florida’s east coast. And it’s why he spent so much free time snorkeling in the reef system just a couple of hundred meters from the famous Breakers resort in Palm Beach.

This particular Thursday morning— 28 November 2019—was especially nice. It was Thanksgiving. Tourists and locals alike hit the beaches. The water was flat, the sky blue, and the underwater visibility spectacular. Twenty-five-year-old Viss and his 32-year-old coworker, Andy Earl, spent a couple of hours among the sharks, eels, turtles, octopus, lionfish, and angelfish. They netted some small specimens for Viss’s personal collection. Finally, around noon, they headed for shore.

To a diver underwater, outboard engines have a clear, unmistakable sound. On the surface, however, swimming the crawl, Viss didn’t hear the powerboat until it was almost on top of him. When he saw it, he knew he had just an instant. He pulled desperately to one side, getting his head and upper torso out of the boat’s path before it ran him over.