Marine / Tracking buoy washed up on local beach on its way back to Ireland
A TRACKING buoy that broke loose from a creel off the coast of Ireland and subsequently washed up in a tidal pool near Gunnister is on its way back to Donegal.
Local beach comber Rachel Laurenson discovered the buoy, which she has helped return with the assistance of Sheila Keith of Shetland Fishermen’s Association (SFA).
The NAOS tracking device, along with two marker buoys and a length of rope, drifted almost 900 nautical miles across the North Atlantic before making landfall in a tidal pool at Valliersness.
The buoy, part of the EU’s Horizon research project FISH-X, had broken free from fishing gear belonging to creel fisherman Seamus Kavanagh, owner of the Shaunette, who works out of Arranmore in County Donegal.
Luckily Kavanagh was able to monitor its position during its 31-day journey as the device provided its updated position every hour.
Seamus Bonner of the Irish Islands Marine Resource Organisation Producer Organisation (IIMRO) said thanks to a contact Niall Duffy, editor of Irish trades magazine The Skipper, had in Shetland efforts to locate the equipment were quickly under way.
However, even before Duffy had contacted the SFA, the valuable tracker had already been located and made secure.
Beach comber and dog walker Laurenson, from Nibon, said she always walks the stretch of coast near her home, and particularly so after westerly gales.
She noticed the tracker on 1 November, hauled it ashore and left it in a fish box for closer inspection at a later time.
It was when her husband Brian, who work as engineer on the Adenia, was asked by Keith if could he go and retrieve the tracker thought to have washed up near his house, that his wife was able to say she had already found it.
She said she did not realise the equipment had drifted all the way from Donegal, as she had assumed the satellite tracker had been lost by a vessel closer to home.
“We then went to fetch it, and Brian put it into Lerwick to Sheila’s office,” she said.
“I am fascinated to hear that it has come all that way; I had assumed he had been fishing in the area here.”
The tracking device drifted for 877 nautical miles from Donegal to Shetland
Bonner said his organisation as well as the skipper of the Shaunette were grateful for the cooperation. “It just shows how connected we are,” he said.
“The device is currently making its way back to the fisherman,” Bonner said, “thanks to the kind help of Shetland resident Rachel Laurenson and Sheila Keith at the Shetland Fishermen’s Association.”
He added that the device was tracked via Fishweb and followed closely the sea surface currents modelled by the platform.
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