Our team uses chemical light sticks at night to check for “strainers” under bridges, etc. and to get an estimate of how fast the water is moving. We will put one in an empty soda bottle, close the lid and throw it into the water.

No, we do not recover the soda bottle and light stick. Trust me, during a flood a few soda bottles/light sticks are not much of an issue with all kinds of stuff coming down the waterway.

We also tape them to our helmets with different colors for river right or river left operations.

I have both a Krill light and Glow-Toob attached to my PFD and/or dry suit.

Pete