Yesterday morning, Selkie Sam and I were chatting with a fellow swimmer at our pool when the subject of "fish phobia" came up. Be honest, don't we all have a little mental freak out when we feel something brush our foot in the water? There have even been times in the pool when I've touched a leaf and had a mild panic!
I've swum through some textured waters; in the Boston Harbor in late summer, there are such thick swarms of moon and comb jellies that you feel like you're swimming through squishy jello. I've swam in the rivers around Manhattan and been blessed with the "Harlem Mustache" - brown silty scum that clings facial and body hair, making you look like Chewbacca. At END WET, I used a catfish as a paddle and narrowly avoided slicing through a bloated dead beaver. But I've never swam into a dead body.
Last summer, the day before the Xterra Hagg Lake Triathlon, someone either jumped or fell off the fishing pier into extremely shallow water. They likely broke something upon impact, and were reportedly seen to surface once before going under. The search remained underway until late into the evening, when the sheriff informed the race organizer that if they didn't find the person that night, the RD would need to inform the participants that there was an unrecovered body close to the swim course. Thankfully, they recovered the person just before calling off the search, and the RD didn't have to start the triathlon without having to say, "Well folks, they're looking for a dead body in the water, and if you swim into something that isn't moving, please let us know so we can alert the searchers." When I showed up the following morning to help organize the swim portion of the race, the race director told me how lucky we were they finally recovered the body, or I'd have to tell my volunteers to start monitoring the course for him!
As a swimmer and race director, the scenario of encountering a dead body gives me nightmares and "what just touched my leg!?" heebee jeebies. But what are my chances of this happening?
As it turns out, given the number of bridges in Portland, the likelihood of a dead body surfacing is low, but not zero. There are a number of people who are last seen on or around the bridges, but not all are recovered each year. In a freshwater environment, when someone sinks to the bottom or catches on river debris, they remain mostly intact, potentially for years, until the earth around them is disturbed or there's enough gas built up for the body to change buoyancy.
But let's say the worst has happened and the thing that touched your foot actually is a dead body. What should you do?
If a body is discovered in open water, they fall into one of four buckets: accidental drownings, natural causes, criminal cases, or suicides. The majority of deaths in and around the water are accidental. In most cases, someone connected with the person alerts authorities that they're missing, and a search ensues. Most search authorities will likely temporarily close down access to that location, interview any witnesses, and organize patrols with a designated process. In swift or moving water, specialized teams are called in to identify where and how a person may be caught in the water or suggest locations to search.
If those folks haven't encountered the missing person, it's possible the body will surface or wash ashore and a bystander will find it. If that person is you, the best thing to do is swim away to the nearest shore and alert the authorities. Most likely, if you're like me, your screaming will alert someone close by. Despite this situation being absolutely awful, it's super important that you keep yourself safe and don't inhale water or swim into dangerous conditions. Try to stay aware of your body position and your surroundings while you swim to the nearest shore or way to climb out of the water.
It is not recommended to touch the body in any way. Don't try to swim the body to shore or remove anything from the body. If the body is submerged, don't try to pull it to the surface yourself. Once you're on shore, get yourself in a safe environment (get warm or to a place where you can call police safely), and take note of anything that will help authorities locate the body. Prepare yourself to provide the location where you were swimming and a description of what you saw.
Once you've alerted the proper channels, take care of yourself. You're likely going to have post-adrenaline shaking and some shock, and you may need some help processing what you went through. You're probably going to be less enthused about swimming in open water for a little while, and that's very understandable.
I wrote this blog post because I went down a morbidly curious rabbit hole of "what if" scenarios. It's important to remember that the likelihood that this will happen to you or anyone you swim with is extremely low, and there's no reason to avoid open water swimming because of it. That being said, I'm absolutely going to bring my phone with me for every swim from now on, just in case I need to be able to call 911 from my watch or phone while I'm swimming. And, I feel a little bit better about knowing what to do if it happens.
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