Officials Locate Occupant of Abandoned Kayak

Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) located the owner of a kayak that was found floating unattended Sunday morning in the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the West River.

Christopher Drott, 52, of Edgewater said he fell out of his kayak at 7 p.m. Saturday and swam to shore, according to NRP.

A release from NRP said that Drott didn’t contact authorities about the incident because he thought the kayak had sunk. NRP asks that boat owners and operators notify them of all missing watercrafts. 

A search party found a 16.5-foot, two-person kayak that contained a pair of shoes, one fishing pole, an orange life jacket, an anchor and a crab pot around 7:20 a.m. Sunday, according to an NRP release. The Coast Guard, the NRP, Anne Arundel County and Maryland State Police officers assisted with the search for the owner.

The effort used water vessels and a helicopter to locate the “abandoned kayaker,” according to the release. A spokeswoman with the Coast Guard said they located Drott approximately 1.5 hours after initially finding the kayak on Sunday morning.

Boat owners and operators should notify NRP of all missing watercrafts at the Maryland Natural Resources Police Communication Center at 800-628-9944.