Update, 4/3/04: At 9:30pm, 4/2/04, the telemetry buoy that had been the primary tool for tracking this whale, moved into the harbor at Cape May, New Jersey and stopped. The captain of a fishing vessel based in Cape May, New Jersey, called the Disentangement Network hotline this morning to report that he had Kingfisher’s telemetry buoy aboard his boat. He reports that he apparently ran over the buoy’s tether during a tow yesterday morning and that he retrieved the buoy along with approximately 30 feet of tether line. The buoy was believed to be towing only 50 feet behind the whale at the time. It is not believed that the whale itself was hit.
Without any means of systematically finding this whale, every aspect of planning for another disentanglement attempt on Kingfisher has now changed. Disentanglement and technical teams will continue preparations of equipment and techniques for another attempt, but will now stand down from logistical planning. If and when the whale is resighted opportunistically, by mariners or aerial surveys, it will first be responded to by one of 15 disentanglement first response teams along the US/Canadian coast. At this point, there is no reasonable way of predicting when, where or if Kingfisher will be found.
The distance covered by the buoy between satellite fixes while it was towed by the whale was 849 nautical miles. The buoy has been retrieved from the vessel by the Coast Guard in Cape May and will be returned to service in the Disentanglement Network.
Update, 4/3/04: At 9:30pm, 4/2/04, the telemetry buoy that had been the primary tool for tracking this whale, moved into the harbor at Cape May, New Jersey and stopped. The captain of a fishing vessel based in Cape May, New Jersey, called the Disentangement Network hotline this morning to report that he had Kingfisher’s telemetry buoy aboard his boat. He reports that he apparently ran over the buoy’s tether during a tow yesterday morning and that he retrieved the buoy along with approximately 30 feet of tether line. The buoy was believed to be towing only 50 feet behind the whale at the time. It is not believed that the whale itself was hit.
Without any means of systematically finding this whale, every aspect of planning for another disentanglement attempt on Kingfisher has now changed. Disentanglement and technical teams will continue preparations of equipment and techniques for another attempt, but will now stand down from logistical planning. If and when the whale is resighted opportunistically, by mariners or aerial surveys, it will first be responded to by one of 15 disentanglement first response teams along the US/Canadian coast. At this point, there is no reasonable way of predicting when, where or if Kingfisher will be found.
The distance covered by the buoy between satellite fixes while it was towed by the whale was 849 nautical miles. The buoy has been retrieved from the vessel by the Coast Guard in Cape May and will be returned to service in the Disentanglement Network.