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| News Release |
Date: Contact: |
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Coast Guard continues search for 4 missing boaters |
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Editor's note: A press brief will be held at 3 p.m., at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg's north moorings located at 600 8th Ave. S. E., St. Petersburg, Fla., 33701. Media is asked to arrive no later than 2:45 p.m., and to contact Petty Officer Sondra-Kay Kneen at (305) 965-4672 for any questions. CLEARWATER, Fla. - The Coast Guard continues its search for four missing boaters about 50 miles west of Clearwater Pass Sunday.
Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg, Fla., received a call at about 1: 30 a.m., Sunday, reporting that four friends, Victor "Marquis" Cooper, Nick Skyler, Corey Smith and William Bleakley did not return from their fishing trip as expected. The four boaters left at about 6:30 a.m., Saturday, from the Seminole Boat Ramp in Clearwater Pass, in a 21-foot center console boat. A Coast Guard 47-foot motor-life boat crew from Station Sand Key, Fla., HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and C-130 Hercules fixed-wing aircrews from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, and the Coast Guard Cutter Crocodile are searching a 750-square mile area west of Clearwater Pass for the missing boaters. An Urgent Mariner Information Broadcast (UMIB) is also being transmitted on marine VHF radio channel 16. If anyone has any information regarding this case they are asked to call Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg at or by marine VHF radio channel 16.
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