Families Of Missing Boaters Still Searching

((HT: ABC 28))

Marquis Cooper's family knows that the Coast Guard is warning against any independent searches for the three remaining boaters who remain missing. The family says they are only looking for volunteers who have experience, and they are getting help.

Bruce Cooper called the media together to spread the word on a website, halmayer.com, a place where the family is asking for donations and volunteers to aid in their search.

Already, three pilots have responded to his plea. They are asking for $50/hour plus fuel. The Cooper family is more than willing to pay the price.

Cooper says he appreciates all that the Coast Guard has done, but he cannot give up.
The Cooper family has also released an e-mail address, mailto://nflsearchandrescue@gmail.com, for those interested in joining the search.

Meanwhile, volunteers left on five boats from John's Pass Wednesday afternoon on an independent mission to look for the missing boaters. The volunteers plan to stay out until 1:00am Thursday, and they expect to continue searching for the next few days.

While volunteer crews are searching for the three men, the fourth passenger on the boat, Nick Schuyler, is recovering from hypothermia. Schuyler had no more than 10 hours left to live when he was pulled from a capsized boat in the Gulf of Mexico Monday. That was the estimate Dr. Mark Rumbak gave reporters at Tampa General Hospital on Wednesday.

He said Schuyler's body temperature had fallen to 89 degrees, which he classified as moderate hypothermia. Dr. Rumbak said he had "estimated 5-10 hours left." Schuyler's body temperature had risen to around 95 degrees when the rescue helicopter carrying him landed at TGH.

Schuyler, a former USF football player, also suffered trauma to his muscles, chest, ankles and knees from a combination of being bounced by rough seas off the boat's upturned bottom and exposure to the cold Gulf water.

"Mentally, I think he's doing well," Rumbak said. "I don't think this has fully hit him yet."

Rumbak said Schuyler's condition, which was serious when he arrived, is now listed as good.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission sent out a crew early Wednesday to retrieve the doomed vessel the men were aboard late Saturday when it capsized. The boat was to be be righted and the water pumped out before being towed back to shore.

Crews combed more than 24,000 miles of ocean before calling off their search Tuesday for Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, free-agent defensive lineman Corey Smith and former South Florida player William Bleakley. The four friends had been missing since Saturday when their boat capsized during a fishing trip.

On Monday, Crews did rescue Schuyler, who managed to stay with the 21-foot boat. Coast Guard Capt. Timothy Close said if there were any other survivors, they would have been found.

"I think the families understood that we put in a tremendous effort," Close said. "Any search and rescue case we have to stop is disappointing."

Searchers spotted no signs of the men except for a cooler and a life jacket 16 miles southeast of the boat. Still, family members of Cooper -- the son of Phoenix sportscaster Bruce Cooper -- maintained hope at a Tuesday night prayer vigil in Mesa, Ariz., that he might turn up.

Some family members raised the possibility of organizing their own search, but that was strongly discouraged by the Coast Guard.

"Even if he goes on, he's with the Lord," said Cooper's grandmother, Zelma Davis. "But we have hope we're going to keep him."

Bleakley's father said he thought Coast Guard rescuers did everything they could, adding he had lower expectations after only one survivor was found Monday.

"I think they were not to be found," Robert Bleakley said.

Scott Miller, a friend of the college teammates, said Schuyler told him that a chopper shone a light directly above them the first night. Schuyler also told him he even saw lights beaming from ashore.

It was Bleakley who swam underneath to retrieve three life jackets he could find, along with a cushion, a groggy Schuyler told Miller from a Tampa hospital. Bleakley used the cushion and the other men wore the jackets, Miller said.

But the waves were powerful, and after Cooper and Smith were separated from the boat, the college teammates tried to hang on.

"He said basically that Will helped him keep going," Schuyler told Miller, who said he had known Bleakley since the sixth grade. "The waves were just so much. They never got a break."

Family and friends embraced and sobbed outside the Coast Guard station shortly before the announcement. They left without talking with reporters.

"I'm sure that I'll speak of Will like he's still with us for a long time," Robert Bleakley said later of his son. "He'll be an inspiration for me for a long time. He always has been. I told everybody, I call him my hero."

Here's your coverage from Tampa, courtesy of WFTS-TV and ABC Action News...

Sarina Fazan is in the town of Odessa with a look at the family's attempts to rescue the three missing players on their own- against the advice of the Coast Guard...