Friends of missing Toronto filmmaker say more night equipment needed for search

Night crews who are searching for missing Toronto filmmaker Rob Stewart in the waters off the coast of the Florida Keys desperately need more resources, a close friend of his said Thursday.

Tyler MacLeod, a close friend of Stewart who is spearheading a fundraising campaign for search efforts, told CP24 Thursday night that they are struggling to find people and equipment that can help search in the dark.

“They’re doing everything they can with what they have,” he said. “Friends of Rob have gone out there, rented a boat with night goggles.

“Anyone who can help us, we have money, we can pay,” he continued. “We need boats with night vision capabilities. We’ve been able to flood the efforts during the day but it’s at night where we are struggling.”

The search for Stewart, who went missing while scuba diving in the Florida Keys about 48 hours ago, will continue through the night yet again.

The 37-year-old disappeared shortly after resurfacing from a deep dive near Alligator Reef in Islamorada, Florida at around 5 p.m. Tuesday. A colleague he was diving with collapsed when they surfaced and the group rushed to help him. Stewart reportedly signalled he was fine but was pulled underwater shortly afterwards.

Coast guard 'aggressively' searching

The U.S. Coast Guard has said that they are “aggressively” searching for Stewart, however so far, that search has proved unsuccessful.

“We are a search and rescue agency and we always remain hopeful that we are going to find a survivor,” Coast Guard Senior Chief Nyx Cangemi told CP24 late Thursday afternoon. “Doing a search and rescue is both an art and a science and we put together a slew of different factors including the individual’s fitness, the water temperature, how well they are trained for survival and try to calculate them together but the one thing we can never calculate is an individual’s will to live.”

Cangemi said that representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard briefed Stewart’s parents on their search efforts on Thursday.

He said that the search will continue through the night and into tomorrow and could continue past that as well.

“We have both a presence on the water and in the air,” he said. “We have a fixed-wing aircraft searching the area in addition to the crew of our Coast Guard cutter Etheridge. We also have a slew of volunteers and agencies assisting with the search.”

Tory contacted Coast Guard

On Friday Mayor Tory told CP24 that he contacted the U.S. Coast Guard to thank them for their efforts so far and was told that the search will continue for the time being.

Tory said he also explained to coast guard officials how “highly respected and admired” Stewart is in Toronto and elsewhere.

“They assured me that they would continue with the search today, tonight and tomorrow so that means full time and they didn’t say it would stop then; they just said it would be continuing which is what I wanted to hear and what I asked them to,” he said. “We have all got our fingers crossed that that the search will have a successful outcome.”

The U.S. Coast Guard has said that dive teams, boats and helicopters from the U.S. Navy are all participating in the search for Stewart.

Coast guard officials, however, have not offered a timeline for how long they will continue searching.

Earlier on Thursday, Lieutenant Commander Ryan Kelley told CP24 that the Coast Guard has “saturated” a search area of about 11 by 25-miles.

“The one positive thing is the initial report we know precisely where he went missing at the time and that helps narrow the search area,” he said.

Kelley also said that he is concerned about the amount of time that has passed, noting that the coast guard is “always working against the clock” and is doing “everything” that can be done to find Stewart.

Meanwhile, environmental activist Capt. Paul Watson, who was working with Stewart on his new documentary, said he dispatched his own patrol boat to help with the search on Wednesday.

“We were in contact with the U.S. Coast Guard. They advised us to not come in to the primary search area. There were too many vessels but to search north,” he told CP24 Thursday. “Rob could have drifted 160 miles during this time so right now our vessel is up around Jupiter, Florida, making its way up toward Miami and searching along the way.”

Stewart described as ‘completely inspiring’

Stewart’s friends have set up a Go Fund Me page to raise money for the volunteer search efforts and to date the site has raised more than $135,000.

Speaking with CP24 on Thursday, friend Wil Byrick said the response hasn’t been surprising.

“There is a lot of determination and not giving up. Rob was such an inspiring guy and you can see that in the efforts down here and people’s response. We are all just working to do whatever is possible,” he said.

Stewart is best known for his 2006 documentary “Sharkwater.”

Family have said that he was in Florida shooting the sequel to that documentary.

“He has inspired people all around the world, he has changed the world with his work,” Byrick said. “I don’t know anybody like him.”

Anyone who can help search crews at night are being asked to contact Warren Needler on his phone [phone] or by email [e-mail].