Retrieve and re-deploy the listening stations behind Dyer Island.
December 8, 2016 Brenda du Toit
Monday the 8th of December, as Kleinbaai harbor is bustling with busy with holiday makers, our biologists and volunteers launched the DICT research boat Lwazi in order to retrieve and re-deploy the listening stations behind Dyer Island.
We had been waiting for a clear weather gap as the area where the stations are deployed behind Geyser rock is completely exposed Says Alison. Our skipper Jan du Toit took the boat straight to the weigh point of unit one, which popped up directly behind the hull of the boat within 10 minutes.
It can take hours for the stations to surface- sometimes even days. The team were very impressed at Jans ability to put them straight over the stations on numerous occasions and even got a surface after only 7 minutes waiting time!
The listening stations were recovered and redeployed within a couple of hours. The receivers have acoustic releases and do sometimes prematurely detach and wash ashore. Luckily most of the time they are returned by the local public. One unit from Algoa Bay was found drifting 40 nautical miles out to sea by a trawler and another unit which vanished from Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape washed ashore next door to us here at Pearly Beach! The ocean never ceases to amaze us especially how she can move objects from far and wide in such short time periods.
