Hywel Williams wants a moratorium

It was the third fatality in the pool in a month, the recovery coming after Caernarfon MP Hywel Williams called for a stop to diving at the site.

The vast flooded quarry near Talysarn in Gwynedd's Nantlle Valley is a top-class venue for diving enthusiasts, who have been urged by the site's owners to stay away until they develop a formal diving centre next year.

Mr Barrass had disappeared at a depth of 40 metres while diving with five colleagues from a Lancashire club.

In August 2000, a Belgian diver set a new world depth record at Dorothea when he reached 65 metres, where temperatures sank to four degrees centigrade.

Dangerous pool

It is one of the deepest fresh water sites in Europe and is already a popular attraction for scuba divers.

But Gwynedd County Council said divers there were trespassing on private property, entering the notorious pool at their own risk.

Local parliamentarian Mr Williams, who is seeking a meeting with UK Sport Minister Richard Cabourn, has called for an immediate moratorium on the activity.

"We just can't allow this catalogue of deaths to continue," he said on Tuesday.

"Sometimes regulations are necessary to protect people from endangering their own lives in such a terrible fashion," the MP continued.

Gwynedd county councillor Les Jones echoed the MP's comments.

"At Stoney Cove, they have a decompression chamber and first aid facilities, but we have nothing at all here.

"I am asking that this type of activities are barred until proper facilities are on site."

On Sunday, father-of-two Mick Gott was airlifted to a decompression chamber on the Wirral - a unit which councillor Jones has observed at the Stoney Cove facility in the Midlands.

The diver from Derbyshire got into difficulties while ascending from a three-man dive, but died later in hospital.