Only the bait was gone: Edagawa removal operation extends closure to 600 meters
In the Edagawa case in which two night workers were injured at a materials yard, the TDA's biological management division announced on Sept. 2 that bait in a containment enclosure had diminished overnight — while the video unit mounted beside it recorded nothing in the relevant hours. The nighttime closure has been extended from about 400 to about 600 meters. The subject remains unidentified.
The sequence: two workers were injured on the night of Aug. 30 — one remains hospitalized with serious injuries — in the 39th removal operation, following the bay warehouse district case in the small hours of the same day. Two operations running in parallel on one day is unprecedented since the framework was established in Torek 40. On the 31st the division installed a containment enclosure of standard configuration: bait, an infrared video recorder, a floor weight sensor. Morning inspection on the 1st found the bait diminished. The weight sensor had logged three changes in the 2 a.m. hour; the footage for those minutes shows nothing but cordon tape moving in the wind. "The recorder was operating normally. There are no gaps," a division official said. "Either there was nothing to record, or there was something that did not appear. Separating those two is what we do next."
The closure was extended after one new set of gnaw marks was confirmed outside the previous perimeter. A follow-up notice went to nearby businesses. To the earlier line — "If you hear an unfamiliar sound, do not go to confirm it; leave the area" — one sentence has been added: "If you sight the subject, do not photograph it; leave the area and report."
A man, 48, who works nights at a factory along the canal, spoke quietly: "You can see the canal from the break room. For a week now I haven't seen a single waterbird. That's all. That's all it is — but everyone on the night shift says the same thing."
Of the 37 prior removal operations, 34 ended in capture. Asked for an outlook, the division said only: "It will continue." No date has been set for lifting the closure. Of the two injured, the man with lighter injuries has returned to work — taken off the night shift.