Coast Guard suspends search for possible kayaker missing in waters off Plum Island

Last night, Coast Guard crews suspended a search for a possible person who may have been stranded in the waters off Plum Island.

The search, officials said, was suspended at 5:30 p.m. after Coast Guard and local agencies had been on the lookout for 26 hours, covering more than 890 square miles.

The search was sparked after a Good Samaritan notified Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound and said an overturned kayak had been found off of East Point, Plum Island at approximately 3:20 p.m. Tuesday.

According to Martin Betts, public affairs officer for Coast Guard Long Island Sound, both the Coast Guard and Southold police were given some leads from citizens who said they saw a man in a red kayak, but no one has been found and no missing persons have been reported.

The kayak, Betts said, was found overturned in the water off Plum Island and Oyster Point.

A wide range criteria considered before suspending a search, he said, such as time spent on the water; in this case, searchers were out looking for 26 hours, an amount of time that “far exceeds” the survival time of a person who may have fallen into the water.

In addition, he said, the square miles covered and saturation in that zone are also considered, as well as “whether we can mathematically articulate that we’ve done our very best within an area big enough to capture all possibilities. If we have negative results, unfortunately, we have have to make the decision to suspend the search.”

Important to note, Betts said, was that although the overturned kayak was found with fishing poles and food, “It doesn’t mean that anybody fell in. Someone could have dragged it on the beach to take a hike, and had it been carried away by the tide. We really don’t know, and hopefully, the outcome is better than we expect.”