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When four friends head out for a day of deep sea fishing, they're planning for a little sunshine and a lot of fish. But in one horrifying moment, their carefree adventure plunges into a nightmare beyond their wildest fears. [music] As
Tragic deep sea fishing accident involving NFL players leads to a desperate survival fight in cold Gulf waters.
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Key Takeaways
- Hypothermia can rapidly incapacitate even healthy young men in cold water conditions.
- Proper preparation and emergency response are critical in boating accidents.
- Even experienced outdoorsmen can face life-threatening situations unexpectedly.
- Survival depends heavily on physical condition, mental resilience, and sometimes luck.
- Rescue operations rely on timely reporting and accurate location information.
What the video covers
- Four friends, including NFL players Marques Cooper and Corey Smith, went deep sea fishing off Clearwater, Florida on February 28, 2009.
- The day started well with good weather and successful fishing, but Nick Schuyler suffered severe seasickness.
- An anchor line got stuck, and attempts to free it by tying it to the stern and throttling the engine caused the boat to capsize.
- The men were thrown into cold 60°F water and clung to the overturned 3,400-pound boat, struggling against waves and hypothermia.
- They tried unsuccessfully to right the boat and retrieve life jackets from inside the hull.
- As hypothermia set in, Marques Cooper became confused and weak, leading to a dangerous struggle to keep him on the boat.
- Corey Smith eventually disappeared into the water during a frantic episode, and Will Bleakley became lethargic and unresponsive.
- Nick Schuyler survived 43 hours in the water before being rescued by the Coast Guard.
- The search involved planes and helicopters and was aided by GPS coordinates provided by a friend.
- The video explores the harrowing survival ordeal and the tragic loss of three men due to hypothermia.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Fishing Trip Plans
- 01:05Setting Out and Early Fishing Success
- 02:01Nick’s Seasickness and Weather Changes
- 02:39Anchor Line Trouble and Capsizing
- 03:37Struggling to Right the Boat
- 04:30Clinging to the Hull and Hypothermia Sets In
- 06:28Marques Cooper’s Decline and Struggle
- 07:27Search and Rescue Efforts
- 09:14Rescue and Aftermath
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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they find themselves in a relentless fight for survival. This is the fatal breakdown of an NFL player's tragic boating accident.
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Marques Cooper loved to fish. He had been an NFL player for the past five years and was enjoying some time out on the water with three friends before heading back for off-season camp with the Oakland Raiders. His good friend Corey
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Smith would be joining him for the day. Corey was starting his seventh year in the NFL and would soon leave for camp with the Detroit Lions.
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Nick Schuyler was a new friend that they worked out with at the gym. He was a personal trainer and had never been deep sea fishing before. A last-minute cancellation left a spot open on the boat, so Nick invited his best friend
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Will Bleakley to join them. On Saturday, February 28th, 2009, the four men loaded up the boat for an early morning launch at 6:30 off the coast of Clearwater, Florida.
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[music] They had plenty of snacks and beer and extra gas for a long day on the water.
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The place where Coop liked to fish, near an old shipwreck, was a three to four-hour ride depending on conditions. The forecast showed some stormy weather coming in the evening, so they would likely be back and off the water by 8:00 or 9:00 p.m.
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that night. The day was going beautifully, pulling in fish left and right with sandwiches and beer and some sunny skies above with temperatures in the mid-70s. It was perfect for everyone—that is, except Nick. It was a choppy ride out and Nick
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was feeling seasick. Once it started, it was hard to stop while out on the water.
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He threw up his breakfast and anything else he tried to consume over the next several hours. He tried to just push through it and fish, but nausea took over and he was miserable.
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Coop laughed, telling him it was too late to head back now, so he would need to tough it out. He really wanted his friends to enjoy the fishing as much as he did, so he helped them bait, cast,
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and even reel in their catches. [music] But Nick just wasn't feeling it. He bundled up in his big jacket with a skull cap and gloves.
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The wind had picked up, so he was trying to lay down a bit to see if the nausea might pass.
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Coop could see that the choppy waters were getting rougher and the temperature had started to drop. It was already 4:30, so he decided to pull up anchor and head back.
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Will tried to lift the anchor line but couldn't get it out of the water. So, Corey leaned in to help, but it wouldn't budge.
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Coop repositioned the boat a few times to relieve tension on the line and shift the angle, but nothing worked.
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They should just cut the line, but Coop had recently lost an anchor, and this one was brand new.
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After 45 minutes, Will suggested they tie the anchor to the back of the boat and give it a quick throttle to try to pull it free. So, they moved the line from the bow to the stern, and Coop gave
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his 200 horsepower engine a throttle. In a matter of seconds, the front of the boat tipped up in the air as the motor dug down into the heavy water. The men tried to shift their weight towards the front, but it was already too late.
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Water rushed in and swamped the boat, sending the front straight up in the air as it tipped over upside down.
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The men were thrown from the boat and found themselves stunned in the chilly water of the Gulf. After a few minutes of catching their breath and making their way back to the hull of the boat, the four men checked in to see that
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everyone was okay. They started strategizing how to get this 3,400-pound boat flipped back upright.
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They weighed nearly 1,000 pounds as a group and thought they could probably get it righted if they moved quickly. It didn't take long to see that this was impossible. There was no leverage to push with and nothing much to grip onto.
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They tried all lifting on one side and then tried pulling from the top edge.
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They struggled to time it with the waves and used every combination of force [music] they could conceive. After about 30 minutes, it was accepted that the boat would not be flipped and they needed to come up with a new plan.
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Will immediately wanted to get the life jackets from inside the boat. He and Coop took turns diving down under the edge of the boat to get inside the storage area. Despite being extremely healthy and fit young men, it was
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shocking to realize how little time they could hold their breath to swim in these conditions.
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The water was around 60° and the waves were slapping them against the hull. After six or seven attempts, Will was able to come up with three life vests and a seat cushion flotation device.
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They put them on, then climbed onto the hull of the boat as best they could. The air temperature had dropped significantly with the cold front and they were feeling every bit of it. At this point, Coop was only wearing his
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swim trunks, no shirt. Corey had a thin windbreaker jacket and pants. Will was in just a t-shirt and shorts.
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Since Nick had been feeling sick, he had on his sweatshirt and sweatpants and his jacket with a skull cap and gloves at the time of sinking. They were shivering from the cold air and water and taking a beating from the waves. They were
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knocked from the boat a dozen times over the next hour and were still in shock that this had even happened.
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They tried to calculate when people would realize they were late getting back. Coop normally called his wife when he was nearing shore to let her know he was off the water and heading home.
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He thought she might start getting worried by 9:00 that night. The sun had faded to almost nothing behind dark storm clouds and they could hardly hear one another in the whistling wind.
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The waves ripped them from the hull over and over. It took so much effort to pull themselves back up onto the boat, fighting the water and just trying to hang on. Muscles were flexed and tense with every moment. There was no relaxing
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because the unpredictable swells came in from different directions. It was draining the little energy they had in these frigid conditions.
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As the hours passed, it got quiet. The men were cold and were starting to see that they would probably not be found in the dark of night and the chances for survival were dropping by the minute.
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For an average man in 60° water, functionality could be lost in just an hour or two and consciousness would be lost in six or seven.
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[music] They were already mildly hypothermic and it was starting to show. Feet were feeling numb, teeth chattered, and hands didn't work as they normally would. They shivered uncontrollably despite the complete exhaustion from hours of holding on to this constantly rocking
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boat. They talked about their families and what they were going to do when they got home, but then Coop started to get quiet. He took longer and longer to respond when they checked in with each other, and by 2:30 a.m. after being
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stranded out in the elements in just a pair of shorts for nine hours, things started to change. He couldn't grip well and had slid off to the side of the boat towards Corey. He mumbled and slurred when trying to talk and was very weak.
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At one point, he came alive a bit and was certain that he needed to get to the anchor under the boat to cut the rope.
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The guys assured him that they had already done that hours ago, but it became a battle to keep him on the boat.
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Each time he tried to go under, someone had to grab his life jacket and pull him back while he fought wildly and tried to escape their grip. They knew he was confused and hypothermic, so they said everything possible to calm him.
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Corey held onto his life jacket, but he was taking in a lot of salt water with his head lulling to the side. They finally pulled him back up on the boat and Nick switched positions to hold Coop in his lap in a bear hug propped against
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the motor. After bouts of wild fighting an
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almost sunrise. It was then that Corey started acting out like Coop. He had been squatting on the trim tab earlier, but now he was barely holding on to the boat and his life jacket was the only thing keeping
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his head out of the water. He started rambling and occasionally screaming, but mostly he was just laying there limply. Suddenly, he popped back to life and urgently wanted to get out of the water. He was grabbing Coop and
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pulling wildly. His face turned angry and he cursed the guys as they pulled back on Koop's body. Corey was in a fight for his life, and his hypothermia was tricking him into thinking these guys were the enemy.
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When the body temperature falls below 90°, hypothermia moves from mild to moderate, and it gets very dangerous.
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The low temperatures cause chemical reactions in the body to slow down. This produces less ATP, which is the energy molecule for every process in the body and brain.
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Without ATP, the sodium-potassium pumps stop working, destroying the electrical balance of cells. Without this electrical circuit to fire neurons in the brain, cells [music] can't communicate, and thoughts become blended and truncated. Corey's brain was absolutely certain that something else
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was going on, and he needed to fight. [music] It was beyond anyone's control and impossible to just reason away.
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The terrifying back-and-forth battle went on for half an hour, and it was completely exhausting.
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[music] They were all moving in slow motion and could barely exert themselves in any way.
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It was then that they saw a light. Nick was certain that it was a helicopter.
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They screamed and waved, and Corey came back to himself to focus on the light.
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They felt overwhelming relief. They were going to be saved. They watched it in the distance as it moved back and forth, but eventually, it flew out of sight. In disbelief, they screamed and cursed and wondered how they couldn't see them. And
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then, [music] it just got quiet after that. On Saturday night, Koop's wife, Rebecca, was getting worried. She expected that call from him to say he was heading home, but it never came. She called around and checked with other friends to see if
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they had heard anything, but they knew nothing. At 1:30 a.m., Koop's friend, Brian Miller, called the Coast Guard. He reported the 21-ft Everglades model fishing boat overdue with four people on board. He provided coordinates of Koop's favorite fishing spot from his GPS. By
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3:00 a.m., after all confirmations and checks were done, the Coast Guard had launched a full search and rescue mission. They had a helicopter in the air and boats in the water heading to the suspected fishing area, but searching in the dark had its
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limitations. They were hoping to find a disabled boat drifting with the current, but they found nothing.
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Once the sun rose on Sunday morning, a full grid search was started with airplanes, helicopters, ships, and motor lifeboats. The Coast Guard would end up with over 200 personnel involved in the search with 48 separate search patterns.
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The weather was horrible and was beating up the smaller boats, so they had to turn to larger ships like the Tornado, a 179-ft cutter that could withstand the 10- to 15-ft waves they were facing.
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They searched all day Sunday and into the night. There was no sign of a boat or hull or life jackets or debris. There was no sign of anything.
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Overnight, planes and helicopters continued to search in grid patterns to hone in on their location. They were searching for a tiny white speck among an ocean of whitecap waves. The sun finally rose on Monday, March 2nd, and the guys had been missing for more than
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38 hours. Since they had not located a boat on the water at this point, they were starting to believe it had sunk.
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That would mean they had been in the water most of this time, leaving prospects for survival rather grim.
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The Tornado started Monday morning on a grid search with lookouts stationed all around searching for a needle in a haystack. They thought that the boat had likely sunk, but its hull would still be floating at the surface. The Everglades
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was built with an unsinkable hull molded with a special process that locked air pockets inside with high-pressure bonding during manufacturing. This small white speck would be easily hidden in the trough of a wave, so the lookouts had an incredibly challenging task. The
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crewmen were using special techniques to search and varied the patterns to avoid strain and complacency. After five solid hours of searching that morning, Chief Boatswain's Mate Michael Bryner saw a tiny orange speck dipping below a wave.
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He called out, "I've got something." They all focused binoculars on it and discovered it was a person in in orange life jacket sitting on the upturned hull of a boat and he was alone. [music] They sounded the alarm and launched a
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23-ft rescue boat. As soon as they approached and put the rescue diver in the water, they asked the man, "Is anybody else with you?" He simply replied, "They're gone." The day before, in the early morning hours of Sunday, the four men had been
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battling vicious waves all night. Freezing cold, exhaustion, and now hypothermia had taken hold. Coop lay lifeless in Nick's lap. Will had a hold on Corey's life jacket while he floated on the left side of the motor. Corey had
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calmed down again and seemed to be fading in and out of consciousness. Will and Nick [music] kept calling out saying help would be there soon and the sun would warm them up in just a few hours.
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They checked Coop's pulse but couldn't feel anything. Their hands were numb and freezing so they didn't [music] fully trust themselves. They shook him, tried calling out, and slapped his cheeks to arouse him. But there was no response.
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They discussed his condition knowing that he could appear to be dead in this frigid state but still have a faint pulse and chance for survival.
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Corey suddenly became active again. This talk of death sent him into a frantic spiral. He had a look of both fear and anger and tried to get away. He put his feet on the hull and tried to leapfrog
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away from the boat. Will struggled to keep a grip on Corey's life jacket. He begged him to relax and come to the trim step. It felt like his arm was being ripped from its socket each time Corey thrust away. This went on for 15
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minutes, which is an absolute eternity in these conditions. Their muscles burned with fatigue, legs and arms cut up from the rough metal around the motor, with bruises on every part of their bodies. They were thirsty, numb from the 30-mph winds, and battered
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from constant waves. Will's grip shredded loose as Corey thrust away from the boat one last time.
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He thrashed pushing his life vest up under his chin. In one quick motion, Corey pulled the vest up over his head and threw it away. Nick and Will begged him to get back to the boat, but Corey heard none of it. He turned and dove
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down under the surface, flipping his legs straight up in the air, and that was it. They didn't see Corey again.
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They watched and called out, but heard no splashing sounds. [music] It was so dark, but they scanned the surface for some sign, but nothing. They were stunned. Corey was gone. They turned their attention to Coop and checked for a pulse again, but there was
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no change. They took turns trying to rouse him, but it was a futile effort.
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Seeing Corey succumb to the madness of hypothermia was shocking. Now trying to accept that Coop was also gone was simply heartbreaking. Over the next hour, they checked his pulse several times, but in this desperate situation, they had to accept the reality that Coop
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had passed. They removed his life jacket so Will could replace the seat cushion he'd been using.
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Marquis Cooper was gently lowered into the water, and within a few moments, he was gone.
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Will and Nick were alone now and had to dig deep to find a way to survive until daylight.
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They were certain that they would be found within a few hours, and it would all be over.
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Nick straddled the motor, and Will sat behind him, leaning in and hugging his body.
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Nick held onto the motor as they fought the endless pounding of waves. Straddling the motor created a brutal consequence of getting nailed in the crotch with each crash of a wave from the front of the boat.
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The shock of it was staggering, but the damage was cumulative. Nick's entire genital and perineal region was rubbed completely raw and deeply bruised. They choked on the salt water and clutched onto the motor, struggling with swollen legs and painful cuts.
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The waves this morning were 15 ft high. That's bad enough when you're riding in a boat, but an insane vision when you're just a few feet above the surface of the water.
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Each wave lifted them up to the crest, and then felt like free falling on the way back down. Each crash at the trough submerged the boat underwater, and they held their breath until it popped back up.
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Nick and Will had been thrown from the boat at least 50 times that morning, switching positions as they climbed back on the hull. The person in the front exerted a lot of energy to hold onto the motor and lock their foot under the swim
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platform, as well as endure punishing blows to the groin. This went on for hours. Two professional athletes had already died, and now they were wondering if hypothermia would envelop their own minds, too.
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As the morning became afternoon, the waves softened to swells, and sightings of helicopters and planes increased.
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They waved and screamed, but no one ever circled around or indicated they were seen. They were feeling powerless and frustrated. Will decided to dive down under the boat again to see if he could find anything to eat or drink, or to
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signal the helicopters with. It took him several efforts just to get under the boat. It was so much harder than yesterday.
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He finally came up with Nick's backpack. Inside they had Nick's phone, a bag of pretzels, and a 20-oz Gatorade. They turned on the phone immediately and tried to make a call. No matter how far they had drifted, it wasn't close enough
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to land to get a signal. Nothing went through, but the Gatorade felt like gold. They carefully took painful sips of the purple liquid. Their throats were dry and felt cracked, like the worst stages of strep throat. The pretzels
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were rough and felt like sandpaper going down. Will desperately wanted to find a flare gun or a mirror, or something to signal to the rescuers.
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He dove down under the boat five or six more times, but came up with nothing.
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This time after diving, Will just sat in the water holding onto the trim tab. He was completely spent and could hardly breathe. His heart was beating so fast, he thought it might burst. Nick helped him back on the boat, and Will leaned
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against Nick on the keel. They sat in silence, mostly lost in thought about their families and lives.
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They crashed against the metal of the motor over and over, bleeding from small cuts, including the raw sores between their legs.
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Will was getting lethargic. He wasn't holding on as tight and couldn't seem to muster any strength to help keep them up on the boat.
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It was already after 5:00 on Sunday, and it didn't seem like they would be found before dark. Will knew he wouldn't make it through another freezing night in the water. He was so thirsty, and finally his body just stopped cooperating.
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The waves were knocking them in the water with increasing frequency because they were just so weak. Will stopped trying to pull himself back on the boat and just floated while holding onto the trim tab. His head lolled to the side,
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dipping his mouth below the surface. Nick tried to pull him up, but he was dead weight with no muscle tone at all.
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Somehow Will's life jacket had popped up above his head, and he pulled himself free.
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The life jacket floated away as Nick screamed for his friend to reach out and grab it. Nick had one hand holding onto the motor and one holding onto Will's arm. Nick told his best friend that he loved him, and Will mumbled the same
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back. The waves kept coming, but Will became unresponsive. His face was pale and still. Nick was physically and emotionally spent. This couldn't be happening. How could three strong young men in their 20s be dead after a joyful day of fishing? This can't be real.
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Nick was devastated that his best friend in the world was actually gone. Nick finally released his arm and let Will slowly float away. The guilt was overwhelming.
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He had invited him on this trip, and now he was dead. Nick was all alone. It was getting dark again as the waves intensified, and the punishing ride continued overnight. For the next 12 hours, Nick held on, bleeding and battered, fading in and out
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of consciousness. A crash of a wave would wake him up, and he'd be gasping to breathe, scrambling to find his way back to the boat. His legs were like stumps, numb and swollen, with blood coming from his bottom, and
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his skin so delicate and slippery, like it would come right off if squeezed. He could feel that he was dying. His heart pumped, but he didn't feel alive. He was delirious. [music] He saw things and heard things that
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couldn't possibly be real. His heart rate slowed, and Nick knew that this was it.
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Then, he saw a boat. Nick was rescued by the Coast Guard at 11:46 Monday morning after 43 hours in the water.
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He was flown to a hospital in Florida where he was treated for the next 4 days for hypothermia, dehydration, open wounds, and various blunt force traumas.
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Nick's family was elated when they heard that he was found alive. It was something that they had begun to doubt possible after 2 days. But, here he was.
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The families of Coop, Corey, and Will were absolutely devastated and confused. What had happened to their men? As the details were shared, stories became confused and riffs began to form.
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The pain of losing someone, either a partner, father, or son, under such extreme conditions made it difficult to embrace Nick for some. Although Will's family remained close with Nick, Corey and Coop were new friends of just a couple of months, and their families
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didn't trust the story Nick told. After the funerals, they remained distant from him while mourning of their loved ones.
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The question of why Nick survived while the others succumbed to hypothermia is not completely clear.
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The extra clothing he wore certainly slowed his temperature drop, and holding Coop may have insulated their bodies together more than the other men. They believe Nick would have also been dead within another 5 to 7 hours if not
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rescued. Survivor's guilt was a constant for Nick, along with reliving the trauma of what he had endured. Nick wrote a book about his experience, hoping to set the record straight about what really happened out there.
Topics:NFL player accidentboating accidentdeep sea fishinghypothermia survivalMarques CooperCorey SmithNick SchuylerGulf of MexicoCoast Guard rescuecold water survival
