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Gulf Will Be More Deadly If Data Buoys Are Deserted

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 12, 2009

At the same time the Tampa Bay area and much of the country has been saddened by the story of three football players lost in the Gulf of Mexico, the University of South Florida is preparing to dismantle a buoy system that can provide critical information to search-and-rescue missions.

Federal funding cutbacks are forcing USF to gradually remove the 14 buoys in the Florida Coastal Ocean Observing System, which monitors coastal waters from Pasco County to Key West. Similar monitoring buoys are being removed in other parts of the country.

Already, three buoys have been removed from the Gulf of Mexico. By summer the program that USF oceanographer Robert Weisberg started in 1993 may be halted.

And that would be a shame. The network provides essential information on wind, waves, current, temperature, salinity and tides to scientists studying the ocean, outdoor enthusiasts planning a fishing trip and Coast Guard rescuers trying to locate missing boaters.

The loss will significantly diminish the collection of ocean data, which is provided in real-time at ocgweb.marine.usf.edu.

The information helps scientists study climate change, chart red tide, track the movements of fish larvae and nutrients and predict the course of an oil spill. It can alert emergency officials to extreme storms. But it also lets boaters check the weather and fishing conditions. As the Tribune's Lindsay Peterson reports, the Coast Guard search-and-rescue teams utilizes the system to determine the likely course of a drifting boat or person.

And Weisberg says the monitors have tremendously advanced ocean research. "We have learned so much about the continental shelf from this," he says. "We know the response when a storm comes by. ... And the foundation of learning how the ocean works is circulation, which this network reveals to us."

The tremendous resource has already been compromised, since needed repairs on the buoys have been delayed.

Capt. Wayne Genthner, a commercial charter boat captain on Longboat Key, says he won't go out into the Gulf without checking the system. "It is the only way to gauge what the weather actually is out there. This kind of data is what lets us see if conditions are safe."

Weisberg says it costs about $1 million a year to operate the system, which is primarily funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, though the project also receives grants from the Navy, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other agencies.

Given the nation's economic plight, cutbacks in virtually every operation, however worthy, may be necessary. But it would wasteful to pull the plug completely on an effort that is useful on so many levels, especially in a state as vulnerable to tropical cyclones, storm surge and other dangerous weather as Florida.

Moreover, once buoys are mothballed, it will be far more costly to restart the coastal monitoring network, originally advocated by the President's Commission on the Oceans.

The amount of money required is not large. It would seem federal and state officials could work together to develop a funding source. Perhaps a small surcharge on the state's boat registration fee could be used for monitoring programs. Boaters probably would not object if they knew the money would go directly to the welfare of the ocean and the safety of boaters.

Federal and state officials should recognize the value of maintaining an effort that effectively serves researchers, rescuers and fishermen.

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