Search at sea is a very important element related to navigation and safety at sea. The goal of this paper is to study how it is regulated and how it is implemented on an international level, and mostly in the Republic of Croatia. Search at sea in terms of international law is governed by legal norms such as the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue 1979 (SAR Convention), International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS Convention), the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and the International aeronautical and maritime search and rescue manual (IAMSAR manual). In the Republic of Croatia, the most important legal source governing search and rescue at sea is the National Plan for the Search and Rescue of Human Lives at Sea and the Official Manual which is used by the SAR service. How is the search process carried out according to this Plan, who and what constitutes the search and rescue service, and who represents the structure and management of that service. Rescue units play an important role in this work, and in the attachment, it can be found a list of rescue units available to the Republic of Croatia. The paper also discusses statistical data related to the search and rescue at sea in the period from 2016 to 2020. This was considered by examining the changes that occurred, and whether there was an improvement or deterioration in the number of accidents depending the type of accident, the area in which it occurred, and whether there was an increase or decrease in SAR actions.