Lee Deihl is president of Chesapeake Seafood Brokers, LLC, in Reedville, Virginia. As a commercial fisherman in the Chesapeake Bay and coastal Atlantic, he uses CBIBS data every day when he heads out on the water.
In order to get a handle on what weather his headed his way, Lee checks on conditions at several buoys using the iPhone app. Most often he checks wind speed and wave height at the Potomac and Stingray Point CBIBS buoys because they are closest to where he works most often; barometric pressure, water temperature, and air temperature are important to him as well.
“The benefit to having the information is that it is at-hand, up-to-date information. When you work on the water, elements can change at any given moment,” Deihl emphasized. “With access to the buoy data it is a lot easier to predict what type of weather is coming in the near future and give you time to prepare. It takes somewhat of a load off of you and allows you to concentrate on catching your directed fishery.”
While Deihl primarily uses CBIBS to get ready for a day at work, he also uses CBIBS in his spare time. “I am an avid hunter and I use the buoy data while hunting as well as for sports fishing,” he notes.
Deihl believes that CBIBS can help people enjoy the Bay more safely: “It gives you a useful tool to prepare for weather that may be coming while you are out cruising or fishing on the water.”
With winter here, boaters and fishermen need to keep an extra eye on conditions. Low water temperatures can be dangerous; be sure to check conditions at a buoy near you and track your local forecast at www.weather.gov before heading out on the water.