WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) -Scuba instructor Steve Oatman is safe tonight and it’s all thanks to a location device he was wearing and his wife that allowed the Coast Guard and rescue crews to identify the diver.

It was a typical day for Steve Oatman last Monday, “I was hunting for Megalodon shark teeth,” said Oatman.

That’s when the unthinkable happened off the coast of Bald Head Island.

“The chain was slack on the bottom and then shortly within a few seconds of that, I realized something wasn’t connected to the boat,” said Oatman.

The end of the anchor line was broken but instead of panicking, Oatman jumped into action to come up with a solution and get to safety.

“I grabbed that piece of the anchor line, tied a knot on it just to give me a loop to attach to, and then started to get to the surface like I normally do,” said Oatman.

Just when he thought he got to safety, another challenge appeared high seas and the current in the water was rough, “It was pushing really a lot harder than it had been earlier that day,” said Oatman

Using tools from his dive, Oatman was able to get to the surface but his boat was nowhere to be seen.

While he had enough gear and knew how to survive he was met with another possibly deadly challenge; his GPS locator broke.

“Somehow and I don’t know how, but when I pulled it out of my pocket the clip to the Garmin broke and it dropped, it was the worst possible thing it could have happened losing that personal locator beacon at that point,” said Oatman.

Just when Oatman was giving up hope, “I saw a boat on the horizon pretty quickly, I realized it was my boat. I knew my wife was on the boat, would be looking for me because I was long overdue to surface,” said Oatman.

She also made a distress call for her husband and within minutes the Coast Guard was on the hunt for him.

“As soon as I saw the nose of the helicopter shift, that was a wave of relief,” said Oatman.

A wave of relief, with a rescue that saved Oatman’s life.

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