The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office dive team rescued two men who were drifting about 30 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday during a lionfish derby.

  • 2 divers rescued during lionfish derby
  • Pinellas Sheriff's dive team participating in Lionfish Safari

“A lot of our dives don’t have happy endings. We get at the tail end of some type of tragedy,” Sgt. Glenn Wilson said. “Rarely do we get to be involved in an actual rescue, which everybody felt really great (about).”

The dive team was participating in the Lionfish Safari roundup when they heard some screams for help and saw a diver waving for help in the water. That St. Petersburg diver, Rob Littke, 48, said he was having equipment problems and surfaced.

“That’s when I realized my boat was nowhere to be seen,” he said. “No matter how trained you are — and I’m trained to handle a situation like that... I have over 100 dives — that’s a little unnerving.”


The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office dive team was participating in the Lionfish Safari roundup when they heard a man screaming for help and waving in the water. (Photo: PCSO)

Wilson said they found Littke’s boat about a mile away, and the captain had no idea his divers had become unattached.

“We asked the captain if he was missing any divers. He replied that he was not, that they were both down under his boat,” he said. “The captain, doing his job, stayed with the marker float, even though it had drifted quite away from the original dive site.”

Wilson said they found the other New Port Richey diver, James Sailors, 31, drifting about a quarter-mile away from the spot where they found Littke.

“The two divers would’ve never seen each other,” he said.

Littke said the rescue happened so quickly that he didn’t have to use his safety equipment.

“I was really grateful that they were out there doing the lionfish derby,” he said. “They picked me up and brought me over to my boat.”

Wilson said the dive team caught 70 lionfish and won the contest for having the largest one. Marine biologists say that removal of as many of the lionfish as possible is the only method of controlling the invasive species at this time.