Both the RIPTIDE and ROCK STAR are ready for another season of deployments, as well as two Maker Buoy drifters. The students at Falmouth High School are excited to continue their research, but we need your help.

Funds are needed to cover the cost of satellite data for two months and minor repairs. We need your help to raise $1,500 as soon as possible as the cold stunned sea turtle season has already begun! Click here to donate

In 2023, the Falmouth Education Foundation renewed their support to continue the project with Falmouth, MA schools. The Lawrence School was selected to host it, and work began with an assessment of the miniboats from the previous season.

In August, we also learned that the 2019 deployment was included in a published paper in the Journal of Aquatic Biology: See Developing bottom drifters to better understand the stranding locations of cold-stunned sea turtles in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts (Page FM, Manning J, Howard L, Healey R, Karraker NE. 2023. Developing bottom drifters to better understand the stranding locations of cold-stunned sea turtles in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. PeerJ 11:e15866 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15866).

Only two miniboats were repairable for the season, the Riptide and Rock Star. Scarborough Sailor was not repairable. The good news on the two ready boats, though, is that all the electronics were still intact and reported as soon as they were reactivated. So, work continued to update the decorations and charge up the systems as a new set of students learned about the project.

Here are the results from the 2023-2024 season:

December 2, 2023

Captain Dave of the F/V Grace Sarah launched a suite of units for this project during the early morning of December 2, 2023, including miniboats RIPTIDE and ROCK STAR (both with sensor packs) and two Makerbuoy Drifters!

A few hours after launch, the tracks looked quite different (drifting buoys are red tracks, miniboats are green – launch point is yellow star):

Also along the way, the RIPTIDE was spotted at sea by the F/V Relentless! Captain Chris took a cool video and shared it with us:

By the evening, RIPTIDE had already made it across to Wellfleet (green icons close to shore in picture below). ROCK STAR was a little behind and started to head south!

December 3, 2023

The next morning, Carmela and Stacey drove out and picked up the RIPTIDE. By the time they got back west, ROCK STAR had landed on Scusset Beach in Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts. The winds had carried it across all the way back to where it started! And, this was just across the canal from where the F/V Grace Sarah (the boat that launched the two the day before) was in port.

We got a call around noon on Sunday that a beach walker had found the boat, so Carmela and Stacey met them and recovered it. A successful mission! Both boats are in great shape (and back at the school – see picture below), and the drifters are still out in the bay collecting more data.

There are lots of data from the drifters too!

December 14, 2023

The miniboats have been at the school in Falmouth, but on Dec 14, miniboat crew member Stacey Strong delivered them to the docks in Sandwich, MA.

December 15, 2023

The next day, Captain Rob of the F/V Resolve took out the two miniboats and student build drifters, all launched around 8am.

By the afternoon, Riptide sailed onto Duck Harbor Beach right in front of a couple that was walking the beach. They called the number and took the boat out of the surf for us.

Rock Star landed a couple hours later in Truro.

Both boats were successfully recovered. The final result:

In 2022, with support from Falmouth Education Foundation and Falmouth Public Schools, Falmouth High School set out to upgrade three miniboats with sensors to collect additional data in the bay during the 2022-2023 stranding season. The sensor packs had sensors for air temperature, water temperature, and more.

Two miniboats were launched on December 21, 2022 and recovered on December 22,2022: RIPTIDE and ROCK STAR.

Falmouth Public Schools shared about the project in their “Clipper Corner” on January 6, 2023. To read the article by Sarah Murphy, click here: Falmouth Education Foundation Fosters Citizen Science 

The students also presented about their project to the Falmouth Education Fund’s in Action Showcase, which featuring a range of current projects on February 8. For those who missed it, here is a link to the event: FEF Showcase (miniboat presentation starts at 34:40)

The third miniboat, Scarborough Sailor, was launched on March 10, 2023 and landed on March 11.

That concludes the launches for the school year, but the project will still continue as students analyze the data and prepare for the next phase.

In October 2019, partners included NOAA NEFSC/GOMLF, Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Refuge, University of Rhode Island, and Cape Cod Schools. A miniboat named “Riptide” which was decorated by students at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, NH, was provided for the research.

The work was later published in 2023: Developing bottom drifters to better understand the stranding locations of cold-stunned sea turtles in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts (Page FM, Manning J, Howard L, Healey R, Karraker NE. 2023. Developing bottom drifters to better understand the stranding locations of cold-stunned sea turtles in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. PeerJ 11:e15866 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15866).