On April 15, a Coast Guard Local Notice for District 1 advised mariners that the service proposes to remove hundreds of navigational markers in Northeastern coastal waters. According to the Coast Guard the buoys, day beacons, and lights are outdated technology, but boaters are not happy about it.
The proposal has already drawn the ire of mariners up and down the New England coast, including Maine, where over 150 buoys are to be removed or altered and where navigation is particularly tricky due to fog and the coast’s rocky nature. Buoys marked for elimination include ones that mark rocky ledges and underwater hazards. In Penobscot Bay alone, just south of Vinalhaven, the service proposes the elimination of nine ledge markers, most of which lurk just beneath the surface.
But it’s not just Mainers who are upset. On the Sailing Anarchy forum one member wrote, “It’s an absolute hatchet job. For example, axing 11 buoys in Woods Hole. Anyone who’s been through Woods Hole knows how tricky it can be, and it really doesn’t feel like they can afford to get rid of any buoys there. I’ve personally seen more than one sinking due to pilot confusion and this will just make it worse.”
According to the USCG, the effort is to modernize and rightsize the buoy constellation, “whose designs mostly predate Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Electronic Navigation Charts (ENC), and Electronic Charting Systems (ECS), for long-term reliability and serviceability.”
The USCG thinks the reduced number of buoys is justifiable since most mariners today rely on chartplotters, electronic charts and smartphone apps rather than taking multiple fixes on landmarks and navigational aids, but many boaters don’t agree. “This feels different than an approach buoy here and there being obsoleted by GPS,” a commenter on the Sailing Anarchy website wrote. “Many of the proposed removals mark rocks or shoals where straying a few feet from the channel could be highly consequential.”
A lot of mariners believe it could impact safety because skippers rely on visually locating nuns and cans to confirm their location. Lobsterman Gregory Turner told Maine’s WGME Channel 13 that in a snowstorm or thick fog he relies on Coast Guard buoys to confirm what his navigation system is showing him. “When you become disoriented in the fog, and you go alongside a buoy to see what that number is, if there’s no buoy there, how are you going to figure it out?” Turner said. “You’re not supposed to rely on only one kind of navigation. I have paper charts from years ago.”
The Coast Guard says the removals are intended to modernize navigation aids and to deliver effective, economical service. “The message we got from the Coast Guard was that it was to help with budgets,” Portland Deputy Harbormaster Hattie Train told WGME.
A Sailing Anarchy commenter said the buoys are needed in particular if the GPS system went down or if the electronics failed, adding that cost savings were not a good enough reason to eliminate the buoys. “Redundancy is a good thing in our particular endeavor,” the commenter wrote. “Tax me if you have to, but leave the [expletive] buoys in place.”
The Coast Guard will be accepting comments on the proposal until June 13. The USCG will not be accepting phone calls, so all comments must be made in writing. Refer to Project No. 01-25-015. E-mail can be sent to: [email protected].
