Emergency services had been alerted before 7am, with a search of the coastline involving both the Coastguard and lifeboat and a plane from Air Search that made several passes over the bay.
Police and ambulance crews were positioned along Vazon for much of the early morning until the unconscious woman was brought ashore at Fort Hommet at the northern end of the bay at around 8.30am.
‘A 39-year-old woman was identified as being unconscious in the water,’ said a police spokesman.
‘She was given immediate medical attention on the beach before being transported to hospital, where she has since passed away.
‘Officers are now working with the woman’s family to support them, and we would like to express our condolences to them at this very sad and difficult time.’
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.