The rescue mission for a missing rower has turned into a recovery effort, according to Col. Kyle Overturf, the director of the State Environmental Conservation Police.
State officials do not believe the boater, 75-year-old Richard Fiske of Woodbridge, could have survived in the 50-degree waters.
“This morning became a recovery mode,” Overturf said Tuesday afternoon.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection sent word that the recovery effort had stopped at about 4:40 p.m. Tuesday.
“The search efforts are being suspended for today,” Dwayne Gardner said in an e‑mail. “We will be returning tomorrow along with the State Police Dive team, K‑9 units and another side-scan sonar from Fairfield Fire Dept. That is all to report.”
The state police and EnCon officers Tuesday continued to search the Housatonic River between the area of the New Haven Rowing Club and Indian Well Park for the Fiske.
Authorities have been searching the water since about 2 p.m. Monday, when a person working at the rowing club saw an overturned rowing skull — a long row boat — near the docks there.
The rowing club is at 407 Roosevelt Drive in Oxford.
Fiske had signed out the boat at 10:30 a.m. Monday, according to Overturf. His car and belongings were still parked near the rowing club when the boat was found overturned.
Fiske is a member at the rowing club.
Tuesday, state police were using a dog to try to locate Fiske’s scent. A state police dive team was using side scan sonar equipment in the river to try to locate his body.
At about 10 a.m., EnCon officers used two ATVs to search the woods near Indian Well State park on the off chance Fiske was able to get to land and was trapped somewhere.
The search on land was unsuccessful, Overturf said.
As of 3:30 p.m., officials had not found any sign of Fiske in the water either.
“We’re just continuing the search, and we’ll probably go until dark,” Overturf said Tuesday.
