Winter Buoy Pulls, Buoy Maintenance Continue

Submitted by admin on 12/13/2012

uppull2012Temperatures around the Bay are dropping—but that doesn’t mean the CBIBS field team is hibernating. This week, the CBIBS team partnered with the U.S. Coast Guard to pull two buoys for the 2012-13 winter. The Susquehanna and Upper Potomac buoys are located in the northern reaches of the Bay and are in low-salinity waters, making them vulnerable to potential damage from ice.

The buoys were pulled and replaced with “ice buoys,” which are weather-hardy placeholder buoys, for over the winter. The work at Upper Potomac was accomplished together with the U.S. Coast Guard’s Milford Haven (Va.) Aids to Navigation Team on December 11; Susquehanna on December 13 with the U.S. Coast Guard’s Baltimore Aids to Navigation Team.

Once the waters warm in 2013, the Susquehanna and Upper Potomac buoys will be redeployed. NOAA will keep a keen eye on CBIBS data in weeks to come to monitor water temperatures at the Patapsco and Annapolis buoys to ensure their safety as well.

In addition, the CBIBS field team recently swapped a new buoy in for the existing Annapolis buoy; the team is working on remedying a battery issue at that buoy. They will head out to the middle of the Bay when weather permits to recharge the battery for the bottom sensor at the Gooses Reef buoy (instruments on the buoy itself are powered by solar panels; the bottom sensor is powered by battery).