BROOKSVILLE, Maine — After turning up no signs of trouble, the U.S. Coast Guard called off an investigation into an empty kayak that washed ashore in Buck Harbor.
The blue sit-on-top kayak washed up around 2 p.m. Monday. Though no personal belongings were found onboard and no distress or missing person calls were received, the Coast Guard dispatched a boat in search of oars, life jackets or other signs that the boat’s operator may be in the water, said Coast Guard Lt. Nicholas Barrow on Monday evening.
“It probably just washed off of some place,” said Coast Guard Search and Rescue Controller Paul Painter on Tuesday morning. “We get a lot of these reports. We go out and investigate them and if we don’t see any other signs of distress and can’t locate the owner, we suspend the search.”
U.S. Coast Guard Sector Northern New England responds to roughly 100 calls about unmanned or adrift paddle crafts each year, Barrow said.
The Coast Guard encourages users of paddle craft to mark their craft with their name and contact information, Barrow said, to allow first responders to more quickly decide whether somebody is in distress.
Follow Mario Moretto on Twitter at @riocarmine.
No one wants to see a paid registration for boats without motors-but perhaps some type of identification is in order. These small boats do have serial numbers on them. Mine do.
A black sharpie works better and costs less.
That would be a nice service for the customer at the time of sale. Those sold used would be another story.
You would think people would mark these things just on the off chance that they would be returned if lost.