CU oceanography researchers help in rescue of trio of fishermen

By Roger Segelken

Cornell oceanography researchers were looking for fish food and found fishermen last week in the Atlantic.

Under the direction of chief scientist Charles Greene, associate professor of geological sciences at Cornell, the oceanographic research vessel RV Endeavor was conducting a high-frequency acoustic survey of plankton around Georges Bank when the ship's radio picked up a rescue call for three Canadian fishermen who were stranded in life rafts.

Their fishing boat, the Double Dolphin, had rolled over at sea early on the morning of Oct. 21, and Canadian and U.S. Coast Guard aircraft were picking up signals from the boat's EPIRB (emergency positioning indicating radio beacon).

The first to reach the scene, the Endeavor, was directed to life rafts on the Canadian side of the Hague Line, the U.S.-Canadian maritime border, in the Gulf of Maine. Once on board, the fishermen were given a checkup by medical personnel who were lowered to the deck from a Canadian rescue helicopter. The fishermen received a clean bill of health, a meal courtesy of the research vessel crew and hot showers before being transferred to the Canadian Coast Guard cutter, Clark Harbor.

At the time of the distress call, scientists from Cornell, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Louisiana State University were participating in a research cruise for the U.S. Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) program, and Greene said they were glad to be at the right place at the appropriate time.

"The GLOBEC program was always intended to help fishermen in their struggle to make a living from the sea," he commented. "However, I must admit that we never anticipated helping them so directly."

Also on board the Endeavor, which had sailed from Woods Hole, was Cornell graduate student Karen E. Fisher.

Bioacoustical oceanography researchers at Cornell are developing advanced approaches for modeling physical-biological interactions in the marine environment, including new scientific-visualization methods developed at the Center for Theory and Simulation in Science and Engineering at Cornell.