seeingunderwater - illinois.gov

20 / OutdoorIllinois November 2007

It’s been a sad ritual for ages. Peo-ple searching for a drowning vic-tim years ago had very fewoptions other than simply wait onthe shore, or wander the water inboats, looking everywhere. In“Huckleberry Finn,” Mark Twain

writes of how the firing of canons overwater was believed to help locate thevictim. It was all they knew how to do.

When modern search and rescueequipment enabled people to dive intothe deep waters and peer into the dark-ness, recovery efforts improved. Butonly slightly. Divers are still limited bywater clarity—a swimmer in murkywater can’t see, and some recoveryefforts never succeed.

Basic sonar is of only slight benefit inunderwater search efforts, at best. But anew generation of sonar—originallydesigned for high-tech anglers—is prov-

ing to be a stunning-ly accurate mediumfor locating any-thing underwater.

“This is absolute-ly the greatest technological develop-ment I’ve seen in all of my years of lawenforcement,” Conservation PoliceSergeant Tony Rendleman announcedrecently. “It’s definitely the greatest toolwe have today in search and recoveryoperations on the water.”

What is it? It’s the Hummingbird997c, a fish-finder capable of shootingsonar sideways underwater, therebyblanketing the lake or river bottom. Thefine details transmitted to the operator’sviewing screen instantly reveal any

object, from sub-merged vehicles toa missing gun.

During a searchoperation on the

Mississippi River in the summer of2007, Rendleman had barely settledinto his patrol boat to begin trollingwhen he spotted an object on his elec-tronic screen. Search crews workingdownriver for hours had failed to findanything until Rendleman arrived.

“It’s as if you’ve drained the river orlake and can see everything,” he added.“It’s that clear.”

In addition to speeding up recoveryoperations following a drowning, thenew technology stands to foil the oldcriminal standby of ditching evidenceinto a lake.

“If a guy tosses a shotgun in a lake,I’ll be able to find it,” Rendlemanpromised.

Seeing UnderwaterWhen tragedy strikesin lakes and rivers, recov-ery might take days orweeks. New technologycan locate lost objectsin seconds.

Story and Photos ByJoe McFarland

Conservation Police Sergeant Tony

Rendleman uses the high-definition

imaging of the Hummingbird 997c to

quickly locate objects underwater.