Search efforts continue for missing boater

Whitehaven, Md. – Wednesday the search was still on for the missing boater last seen near Whitehaven ferry on the Wicomico River.

One man’s body was pulled from the water Tuesday, but without an accurate description of where the two capsized, it seems authorities are playing a guessing game on where the other boater may be.

“The water here is very low (visibility) so it’s very murky, sandy, silty any movement on the bottom will stir things up,” said Capt. David Haines with the Salisbury Fire Department.

Although the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police has taken charge of the operation, Haines was able to talk about some of the problems teams can face when trying to find a missing boater.

“It depends on the tide coming in, tide coming out. Or if there’s other stuff that marine traffic coming by could move things or the body settling somewhere on the bottom and not being easy to find anyway,” Haines said.

Haines said unfortunately in most cases once an hour has passed since a boater has gone into the water,  the chances for survival decrease and drag nets may be used to try and locate the missing person.

“At that point, it’s gone from rescue to recovery and it’s actually a drag device towed behind the boat, that would snag something on the bottom in a likely location,” Haines said.

And although sonar is a great tool when searching a body of water that’s as murky as the Wicomico river, even that can present challenges.

“The things that would give it some trouble are the crispness of the images, so it’s hard to tell what exactly the sonar is seeing,” Haines said.