Diver Missing North Florida

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ktomlinson

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
1,052
Reaction score
168
Location
Statenville, GA
# of dives
200 - 499
We were out spearfishing today, about 26 miles south of Panacea, FL when I heard a report of a missing diver on the VHF. If you're out on the water, you hear Coast Guard calls, but in my experience they have near been nearby. Not this time. This time, it was 19 miles north east from where we were. We pulled anchor and went to join the search. About 5 miles out, we radioed the Coast Guard helicopter to let them know where we were, and they asked us to search around that area. We did for some time. Later, we radioed other boats involved in the search and found out that the diver had surfaced and was distressed before he disappeared. We notified that we had divers on board that would go down and look at the area, and at least determine the extent of any current/direction of drift throughout the entire water column. We spoke with law enforcement, told them that we had divers, and asked if they wanted us to go down. They told us that it was completely up to us and that they would have divers on scene in two hours. When we told them that we were going to make a drop they asked that we tell them what we find regarding current. At this point the diver had been missing for approximately 3 hours. Two divers went in while I followed their buoy with the boat, they searched for a while but did not find the diver. When they came up we notified law enforcement of the low current and headed in. I don't have any other information on this incident, I checked local news websites, but nothing is being reported yet.

Side note: I've taken safe boating courses, have many years of experiences boating, but had never conducted a search. I had no training, so I drove a back and forth pattern perpendicular to the current that was being reported, with everyone looking out. I found a good resource from the USCG on boat search and rescue, if you're a boater, take 5 minutes and check it out:

www.uscgaux-ocnj.org/Navagation/Sector%20Search.ppt
 
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Not that I am aware of. When we left, Florida Wildlife was still on scene, but other boats had given up the search as well. I don't know when the coast guard helicopter left, but I think it must have been while I was busy watching/following our divers.
 
Later, we radioed other boats involved in the search and found out that the diver had surfaced, was distressed.

Kind of you to help with the search. Not sure I understand the statement above in light of your other statement that you aren't aware of the diver being found. Did the diver surface, appear distressed & then disappear?
 
Sorry, what I meant by that was that later, after searching our area for some time we radioed the other boats involved with the search and asked for more details on the diver. We found out that the people he was with said he surfaced, seemed distressed and then they didn't see him again. That's when we told them we had divers on board and asked if anyone had dove the area where he was last seen.

I edited the original post for clarity.
 

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