The responsibilities and mission of the Orange County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit is to promote boating safety through the active presence and enforcement of County, State, and Federal Marine laws within Orange County, Florida.  Our area of responsibility covers the 1100 lakes that span 67 miles of navigable waterways in Orange County.  Aggressive patrolling of these waterways assures safe operation of vessels.  This in turn reduces the number of boating crashes, injuries, fatalities, and property loss sustained by the citizens of, and visitors to, Orange County.  The Marine unit's responsibilities do not end there though.  The unit is also responsible for water rescues, search and recovery missions (USART or Underwater Search and Recovery Team), marine related property investigations, and aggressive monitoring of boat / personal watercraft rental operations as well as sales and repair businesses. 

 The Marine Unit and USART (Dive Team) frequently assist other agencies and surrounding counties in marine related missions.  In 1999 the Deputies of the Marine Unit represented the Orange County Sheriff's Office at numerous public appearances. The appearances included promotion of boating safety and crime prevention speaking engagements at Orange County Schools, churches, home owners associations, civic groups, OCSO civilian Academy, community business groups and several boat shows.  They also participate in several community parades.  The Marine Unit handed out numerous boating educational materials and taught numerous boating safety classes.  The result of these aggressive efforts to educate the public has been  a greater than 60% reduction in boating accidents since 1998.  Each year the Marine Unit makes thousands of courtesy contacts with the boating public in Orange County.  Hundreds of safety inspections are conducted to educate as well as ensure safety on our waterways.  The job of keeping our waterways safe never ends.  For more information on boating safety contact the marine unit at 407-836-4357.