How it all works

(What to expect when working with us)

How we start helping 

Our recovery searches generally start with a request from a friend or family member. Once we are contacted by phone, text or contact form, we will contact whoever reached out as soon as possible. We’re sensitive to the needs of the family and friends who find themselves in tragic situations like this and move as quickly as possible to see how we might help.

What we ask to better understand the situation and need

1. How Are First Responders Involved:

When we make contact, we’ll spend some time understanding the situation. We’ll want to know:

•  If first responders are still working on the recovery 

• We’ll want contact information for the authorities, if possible, so we can coordinate our activities with them. It’s critical that we don’t impede any ongoing work. 

We’ve been working with law enforcement divers in agencies around California for many years, we’re usually able to quickly build a good working relationship with the first responder team that allows our resources to dovetail efficiently with their work.

If it’s not yet appropriate for us to start a search, we can act as a liaison between law enforcement and loved ones. We’ve been doing this long enough that we can explain the work conducted by first responders, and help families understand what to expect. We find that this benefits both families and first responders.

2. Point Last Seen:

We’ll also ask about any witnesses to the event, and whether they’re available to us. A “point last seen” is critical to narrowing our search and having a good starting point for a search. We may ask about the body composition and size of the victim, and what they were wearing. This is critical in helping us correctly identify sonar images we see. A person in hip waders, for example, looks very different from an individual in swim trunks.

3. Conditions, Timing and Scenario

Depending on the situation, we’ll also want to assess things like current or tidal conditions, so we may ask about other things like time-of-day, etc. We might also explore whether a fishing or pleasure boat has any sort of GPS record (fishfinder), or whether any photos were taken that might include GPS information in the EXIF data. These are all clues that can help narrow down the point-last-seen.

What we won’t ask about: money. This is a philanthropic service we provide. We work without pay. We don’t ask families to defray our costs.

How the planful process unfolds

Before we deploy, we collect an appropriate team for the specific situation. This usually includes a sonar operator, a boat pilot, and divers. Our team members fill multiple roles. We’ll also need to collect the right set of equipment.

Site Survey

When we reach the deployment site, we’ll start with a site survey: 

• What are the currents and depths like? 

• Is it a lake or bay with a smooth bottom, or is it filled with trees (reservoirs) or perhaps boulders and rocks (many bays and offshore sites). 

• Is it a site that’s only accessible from a distant boat ramp? 

• Is it an area subject to heavy tidal flow, so we need to time our searches? 

• How about winds? 

• Does the afternoon wind render searches low quality (frequent issue with area lakes).

Search Plan

Based on the situation, we’ll create a specific search plan. In general, our searches start from the point-last-seen, and radiate out from there. Our best tool in most situations is our towfish side-scan-sonar unit, our fit-for-purpose tracking software and so we set up a grid-like area that we can focus on to “mow the lawn”.  We methodically move through the grid and note any anomalies or objects that are of high interest. Until we confirm these, we refer to them as a ‘target’. We do not mean this as disrespectful or in an uncaring way. We simply do not refer to these as the drowning victim until we know for sure. 

Search In Action

While we’re on the water or at the shoreline engaged in a search, we might not be readily available. We have to stay pretty focused on our task: the boat pilot needs to stay on a tight track, the sonar operator needs to closely watch the underwater imagery, and check any interesting anomalies, and others on the boat are engaged in setting up buoys, watching for other boat traffic or obstructions, and doing line management. It’s a pretty busy team effort.

People tease us about not taking breaks, and there’s some truth to that. Unless we’re reviewing our sonar data, we’re not going to find anyone if we’re not searching. So, as much as possible, we like to keep at it.

This is also true when we have divers in the water. Reproducible dives are also done as a team. So we have at least a diver, directed by a surface tender, along with someone creating a profile map to record in-water searches. We prefer to work without distraction.

What we don’t do right away:

In some situations we’ll deploy divers directly, but this is the exception. Where there’s an exact target, first responders can generally make a quick recovery. Putting divers in without an exact target is sort of like searching for someone blindfolded in a shopping mall - you can’t really see anything, so you’re mostly just wandering around and hoping to get lucky. 

Confirmation and Our Interface with law enforcement

When we find a compelling target on sonar, we will generally contact law enforcement first. First responders are responsible for maintaining a chain of custody for any human remains. Because we understand this process quite well, they’re often comfortable with us making the recovery and handing it off to a Sheriff Coroner, and taking our data and contact information for their reports. Sometimes, they prefer to make the actual recovery themselves for a variety of reasons, and we respect that. We have, in the past, been consulted on situations that turned into criminal cases, and are sensitive to the need for accurate records and proper procedure.

We’re also sensitive to the needs of the family and friends who find themselves in tragic situations like this. Once a recovery has been made, we will contact the family to let them know what the next steps look like: a coroner will receive the body, and may ask for a family member to make a positive identification. 

At this point, our work is done. Although we’re often invited to attend memorial services for those we recover, we typically demur, unless we’re actually a part of the community of friends (this has happened!). We feel it’s important for loved ones to begin the healing process. Our part in that process has finished, and we feel privileged to have been of some small help. That’s why we do this work.