Date:
July 4, 2009

Contact:
Petty Officer
Sondra-Kay Kneen
(305) 965-4672

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Coast Guard ended its search at about 12:30 p.m., Saturday, for a missing 31-year-old male diver 18 miles west of Anna Maria Island, Fla., after divers aboard the 22-foot vessel Malikot located the diver submerged and deceased near the search area.

Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg, Fla., received a call at 10:28 a.m., Friday, from a crewmember aboard Malikot reporting that Darren Rordam, of Tampa, Fla., had not surfaced from a dive.

The Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary searched a combined area of nearly 600-square miles for Rordam before the search was ended.

Assisting in the search were:

- A HH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Fla.
- A 41-foot utility boat from Coast Guard Station Cortez, Fla.
-The Coast Guard Cutter Alligator, an 87-foot patrol boat homeported in St. Petersburg.
- A C-130 aircraft crew from Air Station Clearwater.
-A Coast Guard Auxiliary aircraft