The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

AFTER 37 years, the Nassau-founded SEARCH organisation has announced that it will cease to operate at the end of the month as no successor can be found to replace long-serving stalwart Nick Wardle as president.

Mr Wardle said that although the non-profit, tax exempt foundation has been successful in its mission to provide world-class support to maritime volunteers and render rescue services throughout the south west North Atlantic and Caribbean when called upon, he feels that he cannot carry on the management role. Since its formation in 1977 by members of the Bahamas Air-Sea Rescue Association (BASRA), primarily to take direct advantage of a large donation from a US tax exempt foundation, SEARCH has raised $1.6m in donations.

Mr Wardle, who has been at the helm of the group since its inception, said: “I do not think I can do it anymore, and there is not anyone else, locally, that I know, that wants to pick up managing it.”

He has been an active member of BASRA for 45 years, as a director and then - after forming SEARCH - a volunteer. His wife, Carolyn, as Control Officer, have been issuing weather and boating reports from Coral Harbour for the last three decades on VHF, HF and HAM radios, as well as providing radio communication for a number of BASRA cases.

“We have reached the point that we can’t manage the day-to-day running of SEARCH,” Mr Wardle said. “We all eventually reach the point in life where we just cannot do what we have always done.”

Chris Lloyd, operations manager at BASRA called Mr Wardle’s devotion to service “wonderful”, stating that he had ensured that there was always a search and rescue element present in the Bahamas. “Nick did a great job for many years, whether it was with SEARCH or with BASRA,” Mr Lloyd said. “He found a way to make sure that volunteer organisations that worked to maintain maritime search and rescue mission stayed in operation around the Caribbean.”

From November all donations made to SEARCH will be endorsed to the Association for Rescue at Sea (AFRAS), an organisation that has recently agreed to include the Bahamas and the Caribbean voluntary and charitable search and rescue operations supported by SEARCH as beneficiaries. AFRAS is another United States charity with tax exempt status and, according to Wardle is “the perfect organisation to pick up the effort. The way they are set up, they are very similar to SEARCH in the way it has been set up and operated.”

Lloyd added: “AFRAS has been around along time and is relatively big. We can only hope the new relationship will work the same way the relationship with SEARCH worked.”

Organisations that have benefited from SEARCH include BASRA, Citizens Rescue Organisation of Curacao (CITRO ), St Maarten Sea Rescue Foundation (SMSRF), Sea Rescue Saba Foundation, Saba, Sea Rescue Statia Foundation, Search & Rescue Foundation Aruba (SARFA), Turks & Caicos Rescue Association (TACRA), Virgin Islands Search & Rescue (VISAR).

In its 37-year existence SEARCH was served by some notable executives, including former American Ambassadors Jack Olson and Carol Boyd Hallett, Ben Astarita, the founder of BASRA, and David Gale of BASRA Abaco. BASRA director David Sheasby said his organisation has been one of many beneficiaries of substantial funds, sponsorship and equipment contributed by SEARCH over the years. “All at BASRA salute and thank Nick and Carolyn for their devoted service to our organisation,” Mr Sheasby said.