Post 8: Spring Release Summary
Unlike our winter and fall deployments, all of our drifters released during spring escaped Cape Cod Bay and are now in the greater Atlantic Ocean! Immediately after being released into the bay on May 11, the drifters built by Sofia and Ella/Viv (drifter 1 and 2) started to head northeast towards Race Point. The third drifter, built by Gahelle, traveled south for a few hours before turning around and going north along the western coast of Cape Cod. After approximately three days all of the drifters had journeyed north out of the bay and were heading towards the Outer Cape. The drifters’ behavior was markedly different from the previous two deployments, characterized by faster and more direct pathways out of the bay.
We are continuing to track the drifters to see where they go. You can also check on the drifters at https://studentdrifters.org/tracks/drift_osteam_2026_2.html where their current positions are updated every few hours. If a drifter eventually washes ashore, we will follow up with another post about the retrieval!
Even without retrieving the spring drifters, we still have two remaining drifters that can be deployed. Our last deployment is scheduled for this summer, tentatively mid-July, so stay tuned for updates and our final set of blog posts!
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