TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The family of a man who went missing while scuba diving in the sea off Penghu’s Dongji Island (東吉嶼) in June commissioned a local business providing commercial diving services to place a stele with inscriptions at the bottom of the sea to memorialize their loved one.

Yeh Sheng-hung (葉生弘) of Island 77, a commercial diving services operator from Wangan Township, told CNA that after an unsuccessful search for the missing man, surnamed Wang (王), that lasted for more than three months, Wang’s family came to the realization that their loved one was destined to stay in Penghu.

Therefore, the family had a stele made out of precious stone engraved with Wang's name and the Mandarin characters that translate literally as “beautiful Penghu, cherish life.” On Sept. 30, the family commissioned Island 77 to place the stele at a spot 20 meters deep off Dongji Island to commemorate Wang's life and give closure to the grieving family, CNA quoted Yeh as saying.

Yeh said that Wang, who was in his 50s, went missing after going scuba diving in the Dongji Sea area with several friends on June 24. The Coast Guard, air surveillance units, and fishing boats searched for Wang for days after he went missing, but to no avail. Video footage provided by a commercial diving services operator shows that Wang could have suffered some physical illness when he was about to go ashore, which could have resulted in the fatality, Yeh said, per CNA.

(Yeh Sheng-hung photo)