The Police Dive squad held a safety presentation in Rotorua last night to raise safety awareness.

Senior Sergeant Bruce Adams said there had been nine diving deaths across the country since the week before Christmas.

"While the cause of these deaths are undetermined until coroner hearings we felt there was a need to raise safety awareness with the recreational scuba divers and spearo's (spear fishes) in New Zealand."

Senior Sergeant Adams said their aim was to highlight common issues they had found in the unfortunate diving deaths and hopefully all involved in the sport could learn from the common issues to ensure they all got home safe.

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They have held safety presentations over recent weeks throughout New Zealand in Wellington, Auckland (Lake Pupuke), as well as Rotorua.

They will be presenting the dive safely presentation at the Tauranga Sports Fishing Club on Thursday evening from 6pm, and will be in Tauranga today to conduct training exercises at Astrolabe Reef.