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
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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