WILTON — An expensive research buoy that went missing from its usual location on Wilson Lake sometime this winter has been found.
This research buoy went missing from Wilson Lake in Wilton over the winter. It was found June 15 in the area where Wilson Stream enters the lake. Submitted photo
The Franklin Journal reached out to Sandy Muller, president of Friends of Wilson Lake, on June 14 after seeing a Facebook post regarding the buoy. It was found the next day.
The buoy is connected to cables with sensors that record data about water quality. The information shows changes in the lake’s health, which can impact plant and fish life, she noted.
Muller said she thought the buoy, which looks like a big red ball, was lost because of the winter weather.
“We have had a tremendous response from boaters,” she said. “I can’t believe it. People that I haven’t heard from in ages and that usually do more complaining about everything than anything else said they were all looking for it,” she said.
The buoy was located at the very far end of the lake where Wilson Stream comes in, Muller said.
The buoy is in about 10 feet of water, which means the cables are probably tangled and the sensors may not be working, Muller said. “The last time we had a problem, it didn’t move that far,” she said.
“The university took it out, put it on the lawn at University of Maine at Farmington, straightened everything out and brought it back, she said.
The buoy will be taken off and put into a canoe or boat so it can be fixed, Muller said.
A chart of a research buoy shows the underground cables and sensors used to collect water quality information from Wilson Lake in Wilton year-round. The buoy went missing sometime over the winter and was found June 15. Submitted photo
“Our big concern was if it had lost that big ball and somebody rowed over the top of the cables, it would get entangled in their propeller,” she explained. “No. 1, they could get hurt. No. 2, they could kill the cables and everything we are doing good with that part of it. We are hoping that it will continue to gather the information so the university can download it.”
Muller said the sensors on each line cost $1,700. Friends of Wilson Lake purchased five last year.
“Those sensors are what pick everything up,” she said. They are attached at different depths to record temperatures and dissolved oxygen, according to an April 2019 article in The Franklin Journal.
When the water monitoring program started, getting a Bluetooth system which could provide the data from a distance was suggested, but the cost was astronomical and neither UMF nor Friends of Wilson Lake could afford it, Muller said. With this system, researchers can get to the buoy, pull up each cable, replace the sensors and drop it back down.
“If the sensors are not working or did not record since that January storm, we have lost that calculation,” she said. “That is not drastic over the winter. In the summer you definitely want to know because that is what keeps all the plants, fish and everything going.”
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