| Simulated Recovery (photos courtesy of Wendell Nope) |
Who We Are
The IUCRR (International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery) is an international all-volunteer, not-for-profit public service and educational organization registered in the State of Florida.
Mission
The first of the two-part mission of the IUCRR is to support all Public Safety Agencies and work within their Incident Command System, in the rescue and/or recovery of victims in an underwater-overhead environment (environments partially or fully underwater with an overhead obstruction such as caves, caverns, mine shafts, etc., and includes virtual overhead environments as well). The other critical element of the mission of the IUCRR is to acquire all relevant data from the incidents and create reports to be used in Accident Analysis. The ultimate purpose of Accident Analysis is to provide educational opportunities to the cave-diving community and the public on how underwater/overhead diving can be made safer.
Purpose
The all-volunteer IUCRR team consists of Regional Coordinators who are trained to work within the Incident Command system to assist law enforcement agencies — at their request — with the rescue and/or recovery of divers who have entered an underwater overhead environment and have not returned within their allotted time. Each Regional Coordinator is responsible for maintaining a current list of qualified recovery divers in their area. These divers must be certified by a recognized cave diving organization to dive in underwater overhead environments and attend an IUCRR course before being placed on the call-out list for rescues/recoveries. They must be qualified to dive in the environments involved before they are put to use by law enforcement agencies. Every vetted IUCRR diver must maintain the knowledge and skill set of being an IUCRR Surface Operations Manager so that any of them can provide assistance to Law Enforcement officials during a rescue/recovery.
History
The IUCRR was founded in 1999, but its origins began at the 1982 NSS-CDS (National Speleological Society – Cave Diving Section) cave diving workshop, held in Branford, Florida. For more details on the history of the IUCRR, click here.
Organizational Overview
The IUCRR is governed by a Board of Directors and a Law Enforcement Oversight Board (LEOB). The Oversight Board consists of Law Enforcement Officers that are Certified Cave Divers and trained in the management of a rescue and/or recovery operation. The organization has a worldwide resource list of trained volunteer rescue/recovery divers. They are available by contacting the appropriate IUCRR Regional Coordinator listed on the Regional Coordinator List page.
For more details on the organizational structure of the IUCRR, click here.
If you are interested in joining the IUCRR as a volunteer, please click here to find out how. If you would like to financially support the IUCRR, please click here to find out how.