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Just what was this bizarre object found on the Caithness coastline? Beach cleaners puzzled over mystery find at Sannick Bay





Just what was the strange object found on a north Caithness beach which carried a very clear warning message on it?

Dorcas Sinclair and her husband Allan reported on the puzzling find as part of their Caithness Beach Cleans eco group which removes plastic and other rubbish from the county’s coastline.

The strange looking object as it was found on the beach at Sannick in Caithness. Pictures: Caithness Beach Cleans
The strange looking object as it was found on the beach at Sannick in Caithness. Pictures: Caithness Beach Cleans
Bay of Sannick where the object was found.
Bay of Sannick where the object was found.

“I was sent an image of something found on the beach at Sannick,” said Dorcas last week.

“We did some searches online but didn't find out what it was. Today [January 23], we went to look at it. It was much bigger than I had thought when I first looked at the photo.

“When we saw the label which said ‘DO NOT REMOVE FROM THE WATER’, Allan refloated it and we last saw it bobbing merrily on its way to the Pentland Skerries.”

Allan Sinclair from the environmental group poses beside the weird object to give a sense of scale. Picture: Dorcas Sinclair
Allan Sinclair from the environmental group poses beside the weird object to give a sense of scale. Picture: Dorcas Sinclair

Allan and Dorcas failed to come up with any clues in their initial online searches but they persevered and their sleuthing paid off when they discovered the name of a company.

“We found that the company called Running Tide had set these buoys off from between Iceland and Greenland and there were 25 of them.

A closeup shot of the Sannick buoy.
A closeup shot of the Sannick buoy.
A now defunct company Running Tide had sent out the buoy as part of an environmental research programme. Picture: Dorcas Sinclair
A now defunct company Running Tide had sent out the buoy as part of an environmental research programme. Picture: Dorcas Sinclair

“But the company had closed down. So I don't know if they only set off 25 or if this was part of one batch of 25, but it has GPS so they must be able to follow them and should have recovered them when they closed down, in my opinion anyway.”

Allan sent an email to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and received a “very comprehensive reply” from a specialist called Dr Rick Lumpkin.

"I didn't know about this group until Googling them myself, and I don't know how one would access the data from their buoys,” said Dr Lumpkin.

Andrew Thompson, a senior mechanical engineer with Running Tide, pictured with one of the buoys.
Andrew Thompson, a senior mechanical engineer with Running Tide, pictured with one of the buoys.

“I can at least try to give you a helpful reply by looking at the statistics of all the ‘undrogued’ drifting buoys in the Global Drifter Program. If I look at all the drifters that passed near John O'Groats and go back in time, to get a cloud of probability of where they were likely to be located 30 days earlier, 120 days, etc., here's what I get.

“The shading is log10 probability, normalized so that the integral over the distribution is 1, so colors lighter than yellow are very unlikely. The titles are days back in time:"

Environmental data sent from the Global Drifter Program that was shared by Dr Lumpkin.
Environmental data sent from the Global Drifter Program that was shared by Dr Lumpkin.

Dorcas said: “If this lands on the beach again we would like to recover it. It is obsolete and if it were to hit a kayaker or wind surfer or something it could hurt them. It's annoying that they didn't recover them rather than leave then as a hazard to small craft.”

She adds that if anyone finds one of the buoys on the coastline she would be grateful if they could contact her through the group’s Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/groups/2561533860586878

Dorcas and Allan refloated the buoy but after finding out later that the company is no longer operating they say they would remove the object from the water as it could pose a hazard to small craft. Picture: Dorcas Sinclair
Dorcas and Allan refloated the buoy but after finding out later that the company is no longer operating they say they would remove the object from the water as it could pose a hazard to small craft. Picture: Dorcas Sinclair

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