Florida Atlantic Coast OW Equivalent to the IUCRR?

[NothingClever]

BLUF:

Based on a recent incident in Florida, I became curious if there's an OW equivalent to the IUCRR .

KEY QUESTIONS:

Has anybody on the board been involved in a private, civilian organization of divers with specialized qualifications that augments law enforcement or Coast Guard for a time-sensitive subsurface search in the open ocean?

Is there such an organization in Florida to conduct manpower-intensive open water subsurface searches?

BACKGROUND:

This thread is inspired by the presumed loss of Jack Levine (24 y/o) on Saturday, 15 March 2025 in the Pompano Beach area.

A junior diver, he apparently didn't have control of his buoyancy, suffered an uncontrolled descent and never ascended.

His brother was on the dive. Upon return to the dock, the charter crew met Jack's distraught mother. Anybody can imagine the desperate hysteria of the mother - her son was only in his second decade of life.

Both are suffering an absolutely tragic loss of a loved one. The absence of a body for a funeral makes the loss so much harder.

Although I'm not a cave diver (yet), I've been familiar with Edd's moral commitment to cave rescue and recovery for several years. He feels a deep sense of commitment to return a deceased diver in the best shape possible to their loved ones for closure. He doesn't do it for recognition or payment but simply to use his skills for good.

Finding a missing diver in the open ocean is an urgent problem that can be simple to supremely complex. If the diver doesn't ascend, no amount of fixed or rotary wing search assets is going to see under the water. Similarly, no amount of LE patrol vessels can spot a submerged casualty, not without dragging a sidescan sonar. At some point amidst an exhaustive aerial and surface search, search organizations have to suspend the operation until additional information can assist in focusing the search.

However, there is another search that could be conducted if the sea state allows - that of an underwater search by a team trained in search and recovery operations. LE divers can only cover a small portion of the total potential terrain where the casualty may be found without additional manpower or technological augmentation. Much like there are volunteer firefighters that augment an austere fire department, I think there could be a network of OW divers with specialized training to augment the aerial and surface search to make it "three dimensional".

MOTIVATION:

@VsubT and I were supposed to do a trimix dive the day Jack Levine disappeared but our Captain scratched the dive due to an anticipated deterioration in conditions. We then checked the beach for a simple shore dive and we scratched that, too. As we got on with our days and chatted back and forth, I struggled to wrap my mind around how easily we monitored the conditions, proactively engaged with the Captain and avoided a dangerous situation. We contrasted our tranquil experience underpinned by seasoned judgment with that of a brand new diver whose nightmarish death was very likely avoidable with a modest dose of preventive effort.

As the Americans on this board would expect, our US Coast Guard and Broward County LE officials immediately responded on the day of the incident (Saturday) by mounting an organized, deliberate and exhaustive search. Empty-handed, they had to suspend search operations on Monday, 17 March 2025.

Although the dive conditions were too rough for us to go out, I felt powerless to not be part of a vetted list of 20-30 divers who can be ready on short notice (as soon as conditions allow) to augment a Federal, State or County LE organization with manpower capable of and equipped for extended range diving to amplify their search operations.

It's now Tuesday, 18 March 2025 and I can only imagine Jack Levine's body is well on its way to becoming unrecognizable for a funeral for his grieving family.

 

[Johnoly]

In a round about way, not related, but similar. There has been some hearsay, stories of divers losing very expensive items underwater, cameras, scooters, momentos, entire kits, etc. Sometimes when there is a very full passenger list the following trips/days, they may 'back-dive' the same spot. Sometimes told in advance the item, sometimes not. It's also very depth dependent and task loaded if told in advance. I've never heard of a Florida formal incorporated NGO solely for the purpose of Ocean scuba underwater SAR that can be hired/requested. In my opinion, it would be expensive, time away from work and the thing I hear said most is,,,,, the hours and hours of sitting for legal depositions/statements/questions/interviews.

 

[NothingClever]

Thanks @Johnoly . I always look forward to your insight and experience. You bring up great points.

Last evening I called Edd Sorenson, a leader and standard-bearer in the IUCRR organization for some time, to see if he knew of an OW equivalent.

He had (literally) just surfaced from a RB class but immediately started sounding off a Rolodex of divers and LE officials in a couple of states to check with. I’ll re-connect with him today.

Counter to intuition, I think the investigation and legal aspects are the most easily addressed and there’s durable precedent in the IUCRR.

The vessel operators would need to be on a semi-volunteer basis, charging for gas only.

Selection and training of the SAR divers? Not hard for those that are commited to the recovery mission.

The harder part is probably the network of divers who maintain a full twinset(s), all their kit fully charged and ready to go and who can take time off on short notice.

Organizing a network on Florida’s Atlantic Coast at the various principal dive hubs would be easy enough. My problem is I live on the wrong side of the state.

 

[johndiver999]

If there is zero attempt to perform an underwater search by the authorities (or it has been suspended), then I doubt that they have a mechanism to prevent self organized, private divers from performing their own searches (not recoveries) on a voluntary basis. If the diver was lost in recreational depths, then I see no need to require technical training (for technical diving).

Organizing a formal team, with extensive training and liability, costs etc. presents huge challenges from a logistic and financial perspective.

If a body were to be found, the volunteers could conceivably mark the location with a flag or float (or at least ascend) and report the location, presumably for body recovery by the some government agency, but I honestly don't know who would recover it. The actual search and marking efforts, do not seem that challenging or technically difficult when a recreational diver is lost.

If each team carried a tethered surface float, it would not be that hard to mark a location, leave the float in place and do a drifting ascent under a separate smb.

With regard to the recent fatality in Pompano, the commercial dive boat operator would presumably be dropping divers in known dive locations. We can presume that the operator knows the exact number where the diver was dropped (within a few hundred feet anyway). If the diver was "lost" (or incapacitated) and sank, soon after entering the water, then the initial area of search (underwater) should not be that large.

If a diver descended and nobody ever saw them again, say on a drift dive, then the potential search area could literally be 100's of times larger.

 

[MrChen]

I would volunteer to do searches and leverage equipment I have, like my DPV. I'm sure others would too. Finding a lost diver underwater can be challenging with the gulf stream, but not impossible. It is a little frustrating that the search efforts have been limited to the surface.

As Johnoly states, we find our lost gear all the time and not always on the same day it was lost. We once found a zookeeper device 3 weeks later without even trying. We've retrieved our lost spearguns countless times, again, not always on the same day they were lost. Someone found my lost zookeeper 2 months later. We find most items on the same day or the following weekend by marking the spot on GPS.

As Johndiver999 points out, what do you do once you find said diver? There would need to be some training, procedures, and equipment related to not losing the diver. Then recovery would be an entirely different skill.

As for doubles or technical equipment, I think that would only be necessary if the dive area was outside of recreational limits.

 

[MrChen]

In a round about way, not related, but similar. There has been some hearsay, stories of divers losing very expensive items underwater, cameras, scooters, momentos, entire kits, etc. Sometimes when there is a very full passenger list the following trips/days, they may 'back-dive' the same spot. Sometimes told in advance the item, sometimes not. It's also very depth dependent and task loaded if told in advance. I've never heard of a Florida formal incorporated NGO solely for the purpose of Ocean scuba underwater SAR that can be hired/requested. In my opinion, it would be expensive, time away from work and the thing I hear said most is,,,,, the hours and hours of sitting for legal depositions/statements/questions/interviews.

A diver once lost their Tusa scooter on the ledges just outside the inlet and everyone was marking the spot on their GPS to find it for the owner. I believe someone did the following weekend. Even my buddy had it marked to find it.

 

[NothingClever]

OK, full transparency here...I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed.

It took me a minute to remember I used to be responsible for search and rescue/recovery operations across 22 countries.

Good conversation with the Watch Officer at the Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) yesterday.

I doubt that they have a mechanism to prevent self organized, private divers from performing their own searches (not recoveries) on a voluntary basis.

Agreed. I hadn't given much thought to a question of volunteer divers being permitted or prevented from doing their own search. What I'm envisioning is near real time augmentation and deliberate integration into the JRCC search plan. Once the isolation incident is confirmed, the organization I'm envisioning would be on the JRCC's alert roster just like the IUCRR is with LE in their respective cave diving regions.

If the diver was lost in recreational depths, then I see no need to require technical training (for technical diving).

I understand your perspective but respectfully disagree. Searchers need horizontal range and a single tank isn't going to provide that, IMO. This wouldn't be a recreational dive. SAR teams in the mountains don't go out with minimal hiking gear or ski gear; they go out equipped for an intensive and sustained search. If single tank divers want to be a part of something like this, then they could use the entry requirements to serve as their motivation to get the training. Diving a twinset isn't hard but it would be essential.

but I honestly don't know who would recover it.

Each search and recovery diver would need to carry a body bag and lift bag(s). From my perspective, once the fatality is found, that's the moment to conduct the recovery. This is what Edd and all the other IUCRR divers do and they've trained to be interoperable with the LE departments they're supporting. If folks are timid about handling a submerged cadaver, that's understandable but they don't belong on the underwater team. There might be a position on deck monitoring the side scan sonar. Not trying to be divisive or exclusionary but this is about pulling together a mission-focused group of expedition-minded divers who are passionate about getting a loved one back to their family for closure.

If the diver was "lost" (or incapacitated) and sank, soon after entering the water, then the initial area of search (underwater) should not be that large.

If a diver descended and nobody ever saw them again, say on a drift dive, then the potential search area could literally be 100's of times larger.

The JRCC conducts modeling from the last known location and weather conditions to predict the likely line of drift. As you accurately presumed, this forms a focal point in the development of the initial search box.

I'm considering developing a more detailed mission concept and requesting an office call with the JRCC Deputy Commander and the LE liaison officers to determine if there are frequent enough underwater isolation events to warrant the campaign it would take to pull together an organization along Florida's Atlantic Coast. If the incidents like Jack Levine suffered are once in a blue moon, then sadly even the best concept of the operation is likely to fizzle out from a lack of repetition.

@cerich - would like to discuss with you further.