Who — or what — moved this underwater observatory in the sea off Newfoundland?
An underwater observatory was disconnected last
month and found 225 metres (75 yards)from its usual spot.
“You'd think an underwater observatory that weighs over a
ton, is the size of a car and is tethered to fibre optic cable would stay put
on the sea floor of Holyrood Arm, right?
Well, it hasn't — and researchers at the Marine
Institute are left trying to figure out who, or what, moved it."We really
don't know what happened. And there's been all kind of discussion around
everything from, you know, the ice somehow impacting it. but of course … we're
down almost 300 feet. There was no ice there doing that," Bill Carter,
director of the Institute's Centre for Applied Ocean Technology,
said Wednesday."There's also been discussion around marine animals,
and could they have impacted that? And who knows at this point?"
The observatory had been stationary on the sea floor
since February 2021, Carter said, but its video feed was acting up around
4 a.m. on March 27.One hour later, the feed was clear but wasn't shooting where
it should be. Shortly after, Carter said, the observatory lost power and all
communication with researchers."We've managed to get out with, I guess,
three trips with autonomous, remote-operated vehicles," he said."We
found the fibre optic cable and all was looking good with it. And when we
finally traced our way out 4½ kilometres, the cable itself was sitting
there but there was no observatory on the end of it.… [We] went back down on
that mark with an ROV and discovered our observatory upside down on
the sea floor."
The observatory was located 225 metres from its original
position, Carter said.He said it's not uncommon for equipment to move around in
bodies of water but he's perplexed as to what could have ripped the
cable and shifted the observatory that far."It's … really important
to get this thing back and repaired and back in position," Carter said."But
I think the message really at the end of the day [is] working on the ocean is a
complicated thing. And, you know, it's never predictable."Carter says
researchers have been able to get a line out to the observatory and are
waiting on ideal weather conditions to pull it from Holyrood Arm and assess the
damage.
While the mystery remains, though, he's just happy they
were able to get it back."You somewhat get used to losing stuff. But it's
never a good feeling," he said."Fortunately I guess in my career I've
always been fortunate enough to find the stuff.
Source:https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/marine-institute-observatory-1.6815839
There
is a long history of sea monster sightings in the Newfoundland seas, see links
below:
https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2009/10/here-be-sea-monsters-legends-of.html
https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2010/06/old-sea-serpent-reports.html
https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2010/07/bonavista-newfoundland-sea-creature.html
https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-fortune-bay-sea-serpent-1997.html
To say nothing of the famous lake monster:
https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2009/11/cressie-of-crescent-lake-monster-eel.html
So could a huge creature be responsible for moving
the equipment, after all it was encroaching on its territory.