Rangers, Coast Guard search for missing Palm Beach Gardens boater in Everglades National Park

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK — Everglades National Park staff and the U.S. Coast Guard launched a search Saturday afternoon for a missing boater near Shark River at the park’s southern tip, and will resume the search Sunday morning.

A Palm Beach Gardens man, 67, went below the water’s surface and didn’t resurface after he jumped in to try to retrieve a flats boat that had become unmoored from a houseboat he had rented from a park concession with another man, National Park spokeswoman Linda Friar said.

The second man, also 67, from Wellington in the West Palm Beach area, called emergency officials for help, Friar said.

Names weren’t immediately available for either man, she said.

A search by air and water continued into late Saturday night, Friar said.

The man wasn’t found, so the search will escalate Sunday morning, she said.

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